Tomb Raider and Soul Reaver: Worlds Collide
by DragonSeer
Summary: When a gun-toting brunette who takes orders from no man meets up with an undead Soul Reaver, you know all hell is going to break loose. The Tomb Raider and the Soul Reaver find themselves at a disadvantage when they have to work together to close a portal
1. Prologue: Old Favors

A muted click whispered warningly through the hall. There was a slight ripple in the stillness as a single figure stepped around a corner and placed long, thin feet on the carpeted floor. The form crept through the growing shadows with ease. The silhouette seemed a bit strange, however. It was obviously a female, but her arms were up and in each hand was an odd shape. Anyone with any experience could recognize them to be a pair of pistols. The woman jumped over a reclining couch and made her way around a television. Up a short flight of stairs was the study. Light flickered from inside and she knew a fire was set. She padded up the stairs silently and held waiting in the darkness. The person she hunted was resting in a high-backed chair, his feet propped up to be warmed by the fire. She tightened, her muscles preparing to pounce, then lunged forward, firing. The man jumped up, his eyes going wide until he realized she was only firing blanks.

"Good God, Lara!" he exclaimed. "Sneak up on me, why don't you?!"

"With no problem," the woman replied in her naturally throaty voice. Her accent was a British one. She put the pistols away into a pair of holsters tied to the top of either leg and poured herself a small glass of cognac. She sat down across from him. Her butler gazed at her for a moment, his employer, Miss Lara Croft, professional Tomb Raider. She gazed into the fire for a long while without speaking.

"What's on your mind?" he finally asked.

"I received a letter today from Sir Jials McKintrey. Do you remember him?"

"The chap with the taste for the occult and supernatural?"

"That's him." Lara nodded. "The one that I met in my trip a while back to South America. He did me a great help there to getting into and out of that temple alive. I know I told you about that. I told him that if he ever have need of a tomb raider, all he had to do was call. I had a debt to him." She paused a moment. "Today he called on that debt." She handed a folded parchment to him with a slight coffee stain from when she had accidentally dropped it on the paper when she was reading it. The words had caught her off guard. Her butler read quickly through the scrawled letter.

__

Lara Croft:

I regret that I have not sent word earlier and had you come visit, but I have been extremely busy. I had recently found an intriguing artifact with a single arcane symbol on it. It looked like it had once belonged on a column of some kind or another. Not very far from it, we found eight other such images, all looking like they had come from what had once been white columns. To try to see what they had once been, we placed the symbols on specially crafted white marble columns. We placed them in the exact place we had found the original pieces. There were nine in all and eight formed a half circle around a ninth. And the strange things is, Lara, they grew! Not only grew, but lengthened, reaching up into the sky. And they seemed to vibrate. Needless to say, my companions were amazed that we had found something like this. But the stone now seems to pulse with a power, and no matter what item we took to them, they would not break. The tool chipped or broke itself, but there wasn't a mark in the stone.

Now, all this is fascinating in itself, but from there it took a turn for the worst, you see. The columns would not come down no matter what we did. Instead, one day, not very long after their creation, they began to hum strangely. We didn't question; seeing them grow was far more impressive than having them hum. But then, Lara, they began crackling with energy. The energy centered on the main column, then it shot forward a few feet and opened a crystal blue, wavering portal. We didn't know what to make of it. I sent some people through; none returned. A few hours after that, things began coming through. At first, it was just a bird or a wolf. But the birds were not . . . Earth birds, for lack of a better term. When we tried to catch them, they vanished into a green luminescence. We haven't seen them since.

Then things went really wrong. Creatures of human height began pouring out of the portal. Some looked humanoid, but their flesh seemed to be barely holding on. Others looked a mixture of dogs and humans. I . . . don't know what they are, Lara, and nothing seemed to hurt them. Knife gashes healed quickly, bullets penetrated, but didn't seem to do lasting damage. But one of my men kept a lucky knife that had helped him in many situations. It was pure silver. That seemed to do the most damage of all. Keep in mind that it didn't poison them or anything. It was more that it actually cut through their tough hides far better than anything else we had. The thing he was fighting was backed into a pool of water we kept for bathing. The thing acted like it was burning before it died and fell over.

Let me tell you now, Lara. It was night when all this happened. Over the horizon, the sun came up, and the first rays touched these things. They . . . burned. It was almost like someone had taken a torch to them. They literally caught on fire, Lara. And they died, leaving me and my remaining men in peace. For that night, anyway. There were others. We've learned to keep flame-throwers handy at all times.

Lara, bare with me for a moment. I know you think I'm crazy and have no common sense, but that's not true. However, though you won't believe this, judging from the evidence these look like honest-to-God **vampires**. Yes, I know they're fiction. Yes, I know they don't exist on this world. But for God's sake, Lara. On THIS world. This portal does not connect to OUR world. It connects to another, a completely different one. Could it be possible that there are vampires in this world?

Would you please come out here? I don't ask for anything other than that, Lara. You've seen things even I haven't. Think about the statues in India that you saw that came to life. Think about the Dagger of Xian, a weapon which turned you into a dragon, a supposedly mythological creature. Please come out and see this. I ask no more. And I will reward you. We have found several other arcane artifacts which I believe you will find most . . . interesting.

And Lara, when you do come out, bring ALL your guns and make sure you put all silver ammo in. I know you can get that.

Yours gratefully,

Jials~*

"He's nuts," her butler stated simply as he handed the letter back. "All this talk about vampires? I don't think so."

"True," she murmured, leaning her head on her hands. "It does seem unbelievable. But Jials has never once lied to me. And he wouldn't call me out there unless something was up."

She fell silent again. Her butler watched her.

"Lara?" he asked suspiciously.

"Send in a special request. I need my next shipment of ammo made out of silver."

A few days later, Lara walked down the path to a large circular building. Behind it were nine white pillars that reached up into the sky. She couldn't see where they ended. She had to agree with Jials, though. They were amazing. And they had been supposedly indestructible. She hurried toward the building faster.

At the door, a man stepped out into the light. Jials was a man who wasn't thin, but wasn't obese, either. He had a nice amount of flesh on his almost wiry frame. However, now she saw some definite differences between this Jials and the one she met back in South America so long ago. He had lost weight, and obviously quite a bit of it. He looked like he weighed less than she did. His black hair, which had once been so crisp, was a ruffled mess and there were some gray streaks sneaking in. His light blue eyes were murky and didn't shine anymore.

Jials had to applaud the shape his Tomb Raider was in. She looked nearly the same as she had so many years ago. Her brunette hair was a bit longer than before, reaching past her back even when it was braided as it was now. The balance between bust and hip had caught many a man's eye, and that alluring figure still remained. Her brown eyes were quick and intelligent, and he noticed with almost a bit of satisfaction that those luminous eyes kept returning to the white pillars behind the building.

"Good afternoon, Lara," he greeted her. As always, he had an odd accent to his words, but she could never figure out where it hailed from. It didn't sound like any accent she had come across before.

"Good God, Jials! What's happened to you? You've changed quite a bit since we've last met."

He chuckled softly at her undiplomatic way of pointing out the obvious, no matter how embarrassing it was. He had almost missed that about her. He knew of no one else who did it.

"In all truth, Lara, these changes have only really occurred in the last week and a half."

"You're still fight—" She stopped abruptly as he made a gesture for her to cut off her sentence.

"Come inside. It's frightfully hot out here. We can discuss things in peace in there, anyway."

He led her into the darkness of the building, away from the searching heat of the sun. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness, but when they did, she bit her lip to keep out a gasp. A few of Jials' men were here, some lying on cots with vicious wounds, others resting against the wall, a cloth around their neck.

"As you can see, Lara," Jials stated softly, "it's only being proven more and more that these creatures are vampires. They've tried to kill my men and we've found several trying to suck out their blood. As an after effect, those men cut by these creatures' claws have a tendency to avoid the sun. It won't kill them, but it makes them very uncomfortable. It lasts a few days, then they are returned to full health. We've been fighting these things every night for the last week and a half. It isn't any easier, but we know better where to strike each time."

"How many men have you lost to these things?"

"Quite a few the first couple of nights when we were still trying to figure out what they were and how to combat them. Since then, however, not many. Most of the casualties now are just from the vampires getting too close to my men and scratching the hell out of them."

Silence fell between the two as he led her down a long hall. He stopped at a door with a padlock on it. He undid it quickly, then turned back to her.

"Here's one of the things I thought you'd be interested in."

He opened the door and held it open for her. She walked in cautiously and he followed. The room was circular with shelves on the walls. In the very center of the room was an olive green crystal that floated above the ground. On one of its faces was an arcane rune.

"A restoration crystal," she shrugged.

"You know what it is?"

"Of course. I have ten or twelve of them saved from my travels." She looked at him. "Don't you know what they are?"

He shook his head.

"Oh. Restoration crystals heal health and the body. Not only just from sickness like the cold or the flu or minor cuts, mind you. These things can bring a person back from the precipice of death. Suppose a person was missing a leg from an accident. If they spoke the correct rune on the crystal and mentally thought what they wanted out of it, they could grow a new leg. If a person had an accident and they had one of their arms shredded, with one of these things they could heal the damage done."

" . . . Dear God," Jials breathed. "Lara, why don't you give these things to hospitals? To people who need them?"

She sighed. She knew such a question would be asked of her sometime.

"Because, Jials, these things are powerful beyond belief. Humanity as a whole is not ready for them. Plus, only specific people could use them. There has to be some certain thought process in the user's mind. You and I, for example, could use them. The typical Joe modern human could not. It would not work for them."

He was silent for a long moment. "I see. I understand. You're quite right. Humanity would not be able to make proper use of them." He paused. "Go ahead and take the crystal, then. It will probably serve you better than me."

"But what about your men?" When he shook his head, she eyed him cautiously and an eyebrow raised. "If you're giving it to me, that means you think I'm going to be in a more dangerous place than you. What do you want me to do, Jials? What do you want to send me out to do for you?"

"Come with me, Lara. I'll show you the other items we've found later." He led her back out of the room and locked the door behind her as she stuffed the crystal in her backpack. He went down another hall and came to a door to the back of the building. He opened it, bowed, and swung his hand toward the open in an invitation for her to go in first. She headed out, noticing immediately that the pillars were much more impressive when standing close to them. She walked to the edge on the left and began walking past the eight before going to the ninth in the middle. All the columns were white and each on had a symbol that was approximately a foot wide. These symbols were separated from the column by two gold bands, one on the top, one on the bottom. The first pillar's symbol looked much like a brain to her surprise. The second was an almost ethereal cylinder the size of the column, but it seemed to ripple, almost as if it was a piece of a plane of existence not shared by everyone on the planet. The third pillar's symbol had a red background and a pair of crossed swords. The fourth was green with a leaf pattern on it. The fifth had a purple-black background and light purple lightning. The sixth symbol had a brown, almost sepia background and hourglasses on it. The seventh had the image of an enraged wolf's head and a vampire bat looking ready to drink. The eighth in the half circle had skulls. Lara turned to look at the ninth and found it to be a swirling mist of color. It never stayed the same, yet always seemed to have a balanced effect.

"What do you think?" Jials asked finally.

"They're beautiful," she replied. "But what are they?"

"Not a clue."

Lara stepped up to the main pillar and placed her hand against it. She could feel a tense vibration in the air, and when she placed her hand against the cool stone, it changed slightly. For the first time, Lara felt an instinctive feeling of welcome, of a bid to rest. It was almost like she belonged here. She shook her head abruptly and turned to look at the portal which was about ten feet away from the pillar. She stepped over to it. It was roughly the size of a human and a half. It looked pretty oblong, but the edges wavered slightly, and it seemed to change to more of an oval shape or a circular shape at times.

"This is the famous portal?" she inquired. Jials nodded.

"Lara, it's time I be blunt. I have a huge favor to ask. I want you to stay here tonight, to see what we're up against. I want you to see the creatures that are coming out of the portal. You see, we can't destroy the pillars. They won't come down. More over, they won't _let_ us take them down. Most people can't get anywhere near them, which is why I'm surprised you were able to.

"Let me put it this way and take after you and just get down to business. We can't shut the portal at all, which means it probably has to be shut from the other side. We need someone to go through and shut it. Someone who has a chance of getting there, surviving there, and getting back. Someone who can take of herself."

"You're not getting down to it yet," she pointed out. "So let me do it for you. You want _me _to go in and shut this thing?"

"If at all possible, yes."

She sighed deeply. "I'll tell you what. I'll stay here for the night and see if these things are really as scary as you say they are. If they are, I'll do this just for you and to save these poor people. If they're not, I'm gone."

"Agreed, Lara," he jumped on the arrangement quickly; perhaps too quickly. "Agreed. Just stay the night. That's all I'm asking."

There was a sudden commotion and one of his men came out and called his name. He nodded and turned to Lara.

"You'll have to excuse me, but I need to go fix this. You'll be fine out here? No vampires ever come through the portal during the day, but even if they did, I'm sure you can handle yourself."

"Go, go," she replied, waving a hand at him. "I'll be fine."

He headed gratefully into the building as she turned back to the ninth pillar in the middle of its comrades. Again the feeling of welcome washed over her. Strangely enough, she felt almost . . . happy here. It was almost like she had been here before. But that was insane. Wasn't it? What would she find so attractive about the pillar?


	2. The Angel of Death

Night fell with an unexpected burst. Lara had traveled the premises during the time she had arrived and sundown, and had been surprised to see how tense these men were. They did not look forward to the darkness. She was actually surprised by this. Some of these men had necks as big as tree trunks. Were these things really that horrible? She slid her pistols into the sheaths on her legs, threw her Desert Eagle into her pack, and settled her rocket launcher across her back. Her clips were filled with silver bullets, just as Jials had advised. She still didn't believe these things were vampires, but these men were obviously scared as hell of something.

A lone howl pierced the night and all the men seemed to move immediately. They arranged themselves around the pillars and the portal. Lara slid her pistols out in a smooth move and cocked them, waiting. For a long while, nothing happened. Then, with a burst of movement, figures launched out of the portal. She could actually see them because Jials had at least kept enough forethought to put out torches.

There were quite a good number of the creatures. Some did indeed look vaguely humanoid, but had green skin and pointed ears. When they hissed, they exposed long fangs. The skin seemed to be barely holding on to the frame, and after a few hits from the men's silver weapons, they began to bleed profusely. One of the men near it launched a tongue of flame at it from a flame-thrower. It immediately caught flame.

Other creatures looked nothing like humans. They were bipedal and had a pair of forearms that they used to fight, but that was where the resemblance ended. They didn't really look like a human/dog mix as Jials had said, but there really wasn't any other way to describe them. Their feet were clawed with two toes in front, and a claw on the heel which was in the air. Similarly, its hands had three fingers, each adorned with large claws. The head was slightly cylindrical, and it's mouth seemed to be always open, baring a pair of sharp teeth. Every so often it shot out a tongue to hit the men with a vicious snap. It had one pair of eyes, and they glowed a heart-stopping red.

Lara was broken from her musings as one of the less human looking creatures attacked her. She back flipped, letting loose a barrage of silver bullets. The thing grunted in surprise and began to back up. She raised an eyebrow as she watched the creature cautiously. She was interested in this thing. The first bullet holes were beginning to heal, but they were immediately being ripped open again by more. After a few seconds of ear-shattering noise, the thing groaned and sank down to the ground where it lay unmoving. A man near her turned and set it on fire.

"Can't be too careful," he mouthed before turning away to focus on the fight. With a grim smile, Lara jumped into the fight with joy. This was a challenge, something she had been looking for. It had been too long. She had been practically everywhere on the planet that you could possibly find an adventure. What a better idea than to find an adventure on a different planet?

"Remember, Lara," Jials was saying. "I'm not pushing you into this."

"I know, I know," she replied, annoyed. "I'm choosing to do this, Jials. Get over it. I know what I'm doing."

"I pray that you do, Lara. None of the others we sent in came back. I want you to stay alive."

"Which I will do, Jials," she responded, fighting to keep a smile back. Jials could be a worry-wort at times. "You know, the way you're going at it, I almost think you don't want me to go."

"No, no, no," he protested. "It's not that. I just want you to come back alive, all right?"

"I'll do my best."

"If you'll do your best, I can rest assured." Jials picked up her pack and handed it to her. She swung it over her shoulder to rest comfortably.

"I can't believe you pulled that off a dead man," Jials grumbled.

"There was only a skeleton left," she answered as she swung the pack off and looked through it to make sure she had everything. "I was sixteen and out on my first adventure being trained by the best in the field. I had need of it. The body did not."

"I'll never understand you," Jials sighed. "Don't you have any respect for the dead?"

"Of course," she responded, surprised he asked. "But what good was it doing him? It would do me better. If I thought bodies should keep what they'll never need again, I wouldn't be an effective tomb raider, now would I?"

She turned to the portal after sliding the pack back on.

"Well, I'll see you around." She jumped into the portal, drawing out her pistols to expect the unexpected.

She came out of the portal in front of the nine pillars. They looked exactly like they had in her world with only one difference. They seemed . . . broken. The pillars in her world had hummed widely in energy. These ones hummed, but not as strongly. They did not pulse their living essence as the others did.

A quick look around told her that she was in a secluded niche of greenery. There were some birds gazing at her curiously, and that was all. No vampires roamed in front of the portal. No dangerous creature waited to pounce on her.

'Interesting,' she thought emotionlessly, but did not put away her guns. Instead, she started down the path. The trip was uneventful unlike her other adventures. Then she had run into everything short of a man-eating kitchen sink. Here it was peaceful and quiet. She wondered how such a hushed world could hold such terrors.

After a little while longer, she suddenly came to a fork in the path. She had originally decided to follow the path to its end, but this divergence ended at a ruined tomb. She stopped at the fork and looked between the path and the tomb. And back.

'Ultimate motive,' she thought, looking at the path, 'or fun?' She turned to gaze at the tomb.

'Ultimate motive, or fun? Simple. Fun.'

She headed toward the broken-down tomb. She had no idea how long she was going to end up staying here, and after all, there might be something that could prove of use in it.

The tomb ended up being quite easy to get into. The what had once been great doors lay off their hinges and no longer moved, rust rooting them to their place. The hall looked open and inviting, often meaning there were hidden dangers in its depths. Just as she liked it. She found body parts here and there, most of them pretty old, but the further in she went, the fresher the parts. She saw they looked like they had been ripped apart by claws. There were other markings made by an unknown weapon that looked like scorch marks.

'Looks like these adventures ran into a grumpy being,' she thought blandly. 'I wonder if I'll meet it.'

Suddenly, a metallic shriek rang in the air. She raced down a hallway and stopped before getting to a open area. She peeked around the corner. In the courtyard were two figures; one obviously human, the other looking like a dark shadow dashing around with incredible speed. The human was male and was fighting the creature with quite some skill. He lashed forward with a sword, and the shadow almost seemed to disintegrate. He looked around, pleased with himself. Suddenly, with no warning, a green energy condensed on a spot behind the man and became the shadow. It pulled its arm back and a blue energy flowed down it to create an almost ethereal blade on his arm.

'Well, that answers what the unknown weapon was,' Lara commented to herself. The entity lunged forward, impaling the human. The human made a sick noise before slumping and the creature dropped it. Lara stepped out, guns pointed toward it, and called out, "Who are you?"

The creature twisted toward her, focusing blazing solid blue-white eyes on her. It began to lunge toward her and she let off a couple of rounds into the thing. It jumped back, obviously surprised and pulled back behind a column. She stopped shooting, cocked her head slightly to the side, and let an eyebrow raise. A head popped out from around the pillar as it looked at her.

'Well,' she thought. 'It's obviously intelligent. But what is it?'

The creature suddenly let out a growl and raced across the space between them fast; very fast. She pumped the thing full of bullets until it was about ten feet away. Then she brought the aim up to its head. The creature exploded again as the matter of its body seemed to fall away. Expecting this, considering she had just seen it done, she turned just as the entity formed again behind her. Without taking a second to think, she shot. On a human, it would have hit an organ, perhaps the intestines. On this thing, which apparently didn't have such organs, it passed through air. From the ribs down to the hip was nothing except some flesh encircling the spine.

Ignoring the failed shot, the creature grabbed her with a three-clawed hand, two serving to grab on either side of her neck just under the chin. The third was a thumb. Each finger's claw was dangerously sharp. Lara found herself looking into blue-white eyes with no pupils, a humanoid face with blue skin, a slightly long forehead and raven black hair. She could tell from the build of the face the creature was male, and a pair of pointed ears emerged from either side of his head through the hair. A cloth with an intricate symbol covered his lower face from nose down. His eyes narrowed after he had stared at her for a long moment. He abruptly released her.

"Not a Sarafan," he growled. "Leave, human. This is of no business to you."

She righted herself in a smooth move.

"Everything on this world is my business until I discover the connection between it and my world. Then, and only then, will that become my only business."

The creature hesitated as it looked at her for a moment.

"You are not of this world?"

"No, thank you very much, I'm not." She looked at him a moment. "What are you?"

"I am an Angel of Death."

He let a silence extend between the two for a few moments before breaking it again, saying, "Speak quickly, woman. What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to shut a portal between your and my world and figure out why nine pillars suddenly grew on my world."

"Nine pillars?" he repeated softly. He turned and walked away with a fast pace.

"Come with me, woman. This is not a safe place to speak."

Lara, privately annoyed with his use of 'woman' as her name, but keeping a detached outer self, followed the blue-skinned creature as he headed deeper into the tomb. He passed several halls until he came to a large courtyard. She saw pictures, murals, really, on the walls around the courtyard. The names above each picture was heavily scratched out, looking like the rock had been ripped by a three clawed hand. There were various depictions, all of men, but all had been nearly destroyed. Only one remained recognizable, a man of approximately her age with raven black hair cut off to his ears. Where the other names had been, there was just gash after gash on this one. She couldn't even tell there was a name there anymore. Her companion stopped and stared at it for a moment, then in a blurry of movement, jumped up and slashed three long, deep gouges in the rock over the face.

"Who was that?" she asked out of curiosity.

"That was a . . . corruption," he replied shortly.

"Too bad. He was cute."

There was silence for a long moment, then the sound of knuckles cracking. Lara looked over at him, an eyebrow raised. She wondered what she had said to make him mad. Was this man an old enemy who won over him something? Or was it something deeper?

Before she could ask any more questions, he was off again. He continued down several halls before opening a pair of doors and ushering her in. He shut them as she looked around. The room was large and spacious, with more murals on the walls. These ones depicted noble men and women in various poses with what looked like monsters about to attack them. Another held an image of one of these 'monsters' having his heart torn out. At the end of the room was a pair of double doors with a crystal above them. They crystal was destroyed, the doors broken and immovable.

"What is this place?" she asked.

"This is a time chamber," the male replied, almost involuntarily. "This place is unstable, and as such, the Time Streamer cannot watch us."

"Time Streamer?"

"Later," he told her. "First of all, who are you, woman?"

"First of all, _man_," she replied, twisting the word as he had been doing to her gender and adding a mocking tone to it, "my name is Lara Croft. And you?"

"I told you," he retorted. "I am the Angel of Death."

"No deal, pretty eyes," she replied. "Your name."

"My name means nothing," he spat. "Why are you here?"

With an inward sigh, Lara quickly related the story as far as she knew it. The Angel of Death never once interrupted, allowing her to tell her story. He nodded at bits and pieces, almost as if he understood something about it that she did not. When she was done, he was silent for a bit, then began chuckling.

"Interesting, interesting," he murmured. "And did you see this one coming, Moebius? I doubt you did. What have you in store for us?" He stood in a fluid motion. "Come, human woman. We have much to do."

"We?" she questioned.

"Yes, we. I have been waiting for a chance like this and finally, after years of waiting, it drops into my lap. Good things come to those who wait." He began walking out of the room and Lara followed, becoming annoyed with the complacent place behind him. But, she had to admit to herself, he knew where he was going. She did not.

"Where are we going?"

"We are going to the Pillars of Nosgoth," he replied. "I want to see this portal of yours."

It didn't take very long to return to the pillars, and Lara approached them with a mixture of excitement and foreboding. Her companion stopped at the portal and looked at it for a moment.

"What is the point of these things?" she inquired. "Why are they here? What purpose do they serve?"

He didn't spare her a glance as he replied, "They are the representation of the divine's connection to Nosgoth. How they look shows how the land is. Each pillar has a Guardian, a person to look after it." He turned and pointed to the one which had a symbol of the brain. "Starting here and working around the circle is the Pillar of the Mind, the Pillar of Dimensions, the Pillar of Conflict, the Pillar of Nature, the Pillar of Energy, the Pillar of Time, the Pillar of States, and the Pillar of Death. The ninth in the middle is the Pillar of Balance."

"Balance," she murmured to herself as she gently touched the middle column. The feeling changed slightly. Unlike the one on her planet, she didn't get a feeling of a bid to rest, but she did get a feeling of something close to a welcomed remembrance, a kind of respect. It was the kind of a feeling that one person gave to another who is the best friend of a kindred spirit. She wasn't fully accepted, but she was free to stay and rest for a time if she needed to.

She suddenly noticed her companion had stopped inspecting the portal and was instead scrutinizing her. She met his gaze and he cocked his head to the side slightly, and an eyebrow seemed to rise.

"What, pretty eyes?" she demanded. He sighed, exasperated.

"Would you stop calling me that?"

"What else should I call you?" she retorted. "I'm not going to go around calling you 'Angel of Death'."

He growled. "My name is Raziel."

"Raziel," she repeated slowly. "I like pretty eyes better, but since it apparently annoys you, I will call you Raziel."

"How generous of you," he rumbled sarcastically. He turned back toward the portal, then looked at the pillars. One pillar had a different tone from the rest. The Pillar of Time resonated a higher frequency, like it was getting more power.

"Ariel!" Raziel suddenly shouted. "Come out, spectre! Your spirit is bound to the Pillars. I know you are here. Show yourself!"

There was a long moment of silence, then a kind of cold chill raced down Lara's spine. An eyebrow raised as a humanoid figure emerged from the ninth pillar. The woman had no legs, her body ending in a trailing gown. Her blonde hair was pulled back, and Lara could only see the left side of her face.

"Well, it seems the little soul returns to torment me. Why do you return here, Raziel?"

"What is it that Moebius is doing?" he demanded. "Why is that the only pillar which shows some health? What new plan has the Time Streamer lit upon?"

Ariel looked down and away. "The Time Streamer was never one to willingly submit to the laws of fate, and his position allows him to see these laws and avoid, even break them. He has begun to create more pillars on different worlds, to send a summons out for more Guardians. However, he keeps himself as the Guardian of the Pillar of Time, and continues to grow more powerful while the rest of us weaker." She sighed softly. "He may even be able to become powerful enough to avoid his fate with Kain, Raziel. He may be able to avoid death, and if that happens, not only this world, but also every world is in danger. Killing him is something you may not be able to do. But to shut this portal which now holds the other Pillars from stopping him will be able to slow, if not stop him. You must shut this gate, Raziel. Shut the gate to this new, horrendous world. The world's fate once again rides on your shoulders."

She glanced at the woman standing at the edge of the dais suddenly. "Hm. But apparently you aren't alone this time." Ariel turned to look at Lara fully, and Lara was surprised to see only half her face was pretty. The other was that of a skull, its eye missing. She couldn't help it; an expression of surprise and shock crossed her face for a split second, then was gone. The ghost floated down to where she stood and looked her eye to eyes.

"And who are you, dear girl?"

"I am Lara Croft, and I'm from that 'horrendous world'," Lara replied, and pointed toward the portal. Ariel looked taken aback.

"Oh. Forgive me, child. I mean no disrespect to your world. It is only a step in Moebius' plan to take the worlds by storm."

"Who is this . . . Moebius?"

"Moebius is the Time Streamer, the Guardian of the Pillar of Time. His position allows him to see into the future and sometimes manipulate it."

"Hm . . ." Lara let her thoughts trail off, then she looked up abruptly to find Ariel closer. The ghost looked into her eyes.

"Ah. An interesting choice for a Guardian," she murmured.

"Guardian?" two voices demanded, Lara's in confusion, Raziel's in shock. Ariel turned to Raziel.

"Yes, little soul. Protect her as well as the world, Raziel, for she is her world's Balance Guardian. She will be the one to tip your case one way or the other. Now, be gone!" The ghost faded into the pillar again.

"Come, woman," Raziel stated as he walked past her. "We have someone to go meet."

"On one condition," she answered, not moving. He stopped and looked back at her.

"You're hardly in a position to demand conditions, woman," he snarled.

"You seem to be very interested in having me go with you," she shot back. He was silent for a long moment.

"What is it?"

"You can call me a woman, fine. But don't make the name a twisted mockery. Don't put your dripping hatred in it. If you want to try and kill me, all right, but I suggest we do it after this is done."

"Fine," he hissed. "Come along, woman." This time there was no mockery in the name, just a simple statement of fact.

"You know, you could call me by my name," she told him, getting up.

"I could," he replied over his shoulder, then started moving, "but I won't."

Lara looked after him for a moment, then sighed.

'It's going to be a long trip,' she thought. 'Oh well. I wanted an adventure. And so far, it seems to be the beginning of one!'


	3. Encounters with Squid

The two traveled past the tomb and continued down the path. Raziel kept glancing back at the woman to make sure she was able to keep up. To his surprise, she showed quite a bit of durability and stayed close to him, only falling behind when something caught her interest. He had to admit had he not been so quickly jumping into a fight with her originally, he would have noticed immediately that she didn't seem to be from his world. Her appearance was . . . _off_, for lack of a better word. While brunette hair wasn't uncommon, brown eyes weren't so often to be found on a person with the aforementioned hair coloring. Her figure was superb, he had to admit, and it looked like she was brought up quite well. There were three main things that marked her off, however: her hair was one. While the braided style was quite normal, only women of noble heritage were able to let their hair grow out long, but it was frowned upon after the woman reached puberty. The other two things off about her were her clothes and her weapons. Those weapons were quite intriguing, in fact. He hadn't seen anything quite like them before. Plus, he could also tell her for an outsider from her accent and the way she spoke. She spoke like a woman raised in a culture where the female population meant something. Her accent also gave her away. The taste of her words was not one from anywhere on Nosgoth.

Lara pointedly ignored yet another of the sidelong glances her companion gave her. She knew he was studying her, making guesses. She knew eventually more questions would come. But eventually was the operative word. For now, there'd be peace. And she might even find a long rest from those annoying suitors . . .

She had to admit to herself, however, that he was an interesting character. Now that she had more time to study him, she got over the blue skin and the three-clawed hand. Though he seemed to be missing his internal organs, the rest of his body was exquisitely muscled, and the fact his skin was stretched tight over his body helped to accent it. Off his back were a pair of tattered remains of what were obviously once wings. She made a mental note that if they ever became more comfortable with each other, to ask what happened. Lara shook her head and focused on the path again.

Suddenly, they rounded a curve to find three humans standing in the center of the path. She noticed they were wearing the same type of clothing as the man that Raziel had killed. There were two men and one was a woman. The men carried swords while the woman leaned against a long, hooked staff resembling something like a scythe. She immediately brought it up as the two came into their sight range.

"It's one of the them!" the spear woman cried. The two men jumped up into attack position.

"There's a woman with him!" one man pointed out.

"She's a traitor," the other replied. "Kill the vampire's concubine!"

Lara stopped dead, stunned beyond belief. _What_ had this man just called her? Her breath came in short bursts as she fought to control her anger and her hands slipped down to her pistols.

"Con . . . cu . . . bine?" she repeated very slowly. Each syllable was extremely strained.

"You heard us, whore of the devil spawn!"

Lara snapped. She slid the pistols out, shot out the clip with the silver bullets, and replaced them with normal ones. Then she aimed them toward the humans.

"I was willing to let you live, too. Take it back!"

She noticed Raziel had drawn back and was watching her with interest, seeing what she would do. She bet that he was quite enjoying himself.

"We will take nothing back!" the man who had spoken earlier said in a righteous tone of voice. "We retract no statement that is true!"

"I . . . am not . . . some _man's_ plaything!" she roared before letting loose a barrage of bullets. The humans yelped in surprise before they lost their grip on consciousness and life. She slid her pistols away and turned to Raziel.

"I feel better," she told him.

"Come on, my little concubine," he told her. She pulled out a pistol in a motion faster than a snake's strike.

"I'll shoot you with no hesitation if you ever call me that again."

"Yes," he replied as he leaned toward her around the nozzle of the gun, "but you've already done that once and you've seen I come back. I don't stay dead."

She put the pistol away.

"Good point. Wouldn't want to waste good ammo on _you_, anyway."

"Come along, woman," he told her, turning away and gesturing. She sighed mentally.

"As you wish, pretty eyes."

The aforementioned eyes flashed at her in anger, but she ignored the look. She decided that as long as he called her woman instead of her name, she'd call him pretty eyes.

They continued down the path without any interruptions. Lara had noted earlier that they had taken the path that past by the tomb where she had found her blue-skinned companion. Well, it had apparently turned out a good idea to go for fun; she had found help. Her help continued to guide her down the trail until they came to a large temple with a pair of double doors. Lara looked up at them and felt an eyebrow raise.

"Just who are we going to see?"

"An old . . . friend," was the response. She watched as the blue blade suddenly swirled into being around his arm and he slid it into the lock.

"By the way, what is that?"

"This? This is the Soul Reaver, an ethereal blade with the ability to devour souls. The same ability I have been endowed with," he added with a malicious glint in his eye. There was a rumbling, then the doors slid back into the wall away from the Soul Reaver. Raziel walked through, Lara following, staring at the murals on the walls. These were of a battle scene of two very different races. One was blue skinned and had clawed hands and cloved feet much like her companion. They had wings, both feathered and bat-like. The other race was a more . . . demonic-looking race, for lack of a better term. Raziel noticed her gaze.

"Yes, those are demons you see there. The other race was one of angels who fought back to save this world. In anger, the demons placed a curse on the angels and turned them into the vampires that roam the world now. Ironic." He shook his head. "Humans kill those that once fought to save their lives. Well, no longer. The last of these former angels was killed, murdered."

His eyes narrowed in a mixture of anger and sadness at the memory. He turned away and continued down the hall, Lara following. She chose not to ask further, knowing instinctively that he wouldn't tell her any more.

They finally came to a large room. There was a platform in the center of the cylindrical room and between the floor and the wall was water. On the farthest edge of the floor was a smaller image of the nine pillars. Raziel walked over to one edge and looked down into the water. Lara followed him.

_"So, the Reaver of Souls returns to his savior,"_ an ethereal voice boomed into the air and her mind. She looked over the edge to see what spoke.

"Savior?" Raziel repeated. "_Savior?!_ You were hardly my savior, Elder. More over, you were the one who damned me to this hell!"

Lara's eyes widened when the image of what spoke became visible in the water. She looked up at Raziel.

"This . . . Elder is a giant talking squid?"

_"Humph,"_ the male voice grunted. _"Who is your concubine, Raziel?"_

"CONCUBINE!" she roared. "I am not a man's concubine, invertebrate!"

_"Oh, a feisty one, Raziel. Suits you. Well, mortal, what other purpose could you serve?"_

"I am a Tomb Raider, for your information, and a damn good one. I've seen things that would kill even a vampire. You, however, are one of the most pathetic things I have seen in my life."

_"And would it matter to you, concubine, if I told you that I could rend you apart where you stand?"_ The Elder's tone was becoming more and more angry.

"What would you do?" she demanded, a sarcastic smile sliding onto her face. "_Sucker_ me?"

The Elder let out a roar and a crackling sounded from behind them. They turned and found a large, bipedal creature standing before them. It was vaguely humanoid, but really looked more demonic than human. A pair of horns spiraled out of the head and glowing red eyes glared at them. A five-clawed paw flexed before the thing gave a roar of outrage and launched toward them. As one, Raziel and Lara darted either way. Lara pulled out her pistols and began shooting at the creature. The bullets hit, but looked like they annoyed the creature more than actually did any damage. It growled at her and at the same moment, Raziel swung in with the Soul Reaver and slashed down its unguarded back. The being howled in pain and turned again to Raziel, leaving its back to Lara. She took the opportunity presented to her and fired into the gash in its armor. The demon roared in pain and backed up from both, keeping its gaze on both. Lara's eyes happened to glance off the demon and onto the pillars and an eyebrow raised. She launched into a flurry of movement, rolling off to the side and pulling her pack off in a single move. She opened it and pulled out her rocket launcher.

In its distraction with watching her, Raziel lunged forward and cut into its guard. It screeched and tried to backhand Raziel, but the Reaver of Souls backed up. Lara placed the rocket launcher onto her shoulder and aimed up toward the top of one of the pillars.

"Woman?!" Raziel shouted, still entertaining the creature's attentions, but was able to glance at her. "The demon is right here!"

"I know, pretty eyes," she replied. She fired a single rocket at the pillar's top. It landed with an explosion, successfully separating the top from the ceiling. She threw the rocket launcher away and picked up the pistols as the demon pulled back to slice into Raziel. To save him from death on her account (she had been the one, after all, who had pissed off the Elder), Lara yelled loudly to get its attention and raced toward it. The demon turned toward her and began to run toward her. All the while, Lara was firing. At the last possible second, she went into a slide between its legs and twisted, so she was firing at the exposed back. It roared again in pain and Raziel was on it, digging his claws into its back and slashing at it again and again with the Soul Reaver. Lara turned her attention to the pillar she had broken the top of and began to shoot out the bottom where it met the floor. The rock groaned as it leaned forward toward the duo, then stopped. Cursing, she raced to it and jumped on the pillar, her weight dragging it down.

"Get out of the way!" she yelled.

The Reaver of Souls dove off the demon at the last second as the pillar crashed down on top of it, taking it to the floor with it. Lara half crouched, half perched on the pillar as she gazed at where it lay.

"Is it dead?"

Raziel tore his gaze away from the body to the human woman who had surprised him immensely. Not only had she argued with the Elder, she had also been able to prove her worth in a battle she shouldn't have walked away from. She rested now on the pillar in a feral position, looking physically like a human, but the glow in her eyes was nothing near a human emotion. She had _enjoyed_ the fight. She was exhilarated. It had been a challenge to her and she loved every moment of it. He could read it in her eyes. She looked up at him and he almost expected her to smile at him and bare blood-covered fangs.

"Yes, it's dead."

_"Well, well, well,"_ the Elder's voice rumbled. _"The mortal is quite an interesting thing. Watch your concubine well, Raziel, especially in your bed."_

Lara calmly walked over to her rocket launcher, picked it up, and slid another rocket into the gun. Then she walked over to the edge of the floor and aimed down.

"NO!" Raziel caught her arm. "No," he continued when she glared up at him. "We need him for information." She looked about to argue, but he said softly, "Lara, we need him. No."

She took the rocket launcher off her arm and stepped away.

"All right . . . Raziel." She turned and went to get her backpack. He watched incredulously as she stuffed the rocket launcher, a weapon longer than his arm, in a small, half-foot deep, foot wide backpack with no problems. She put it back on her back, looking as if it weighed nothing. He shook his head and turned to gaze down at the Elder again.

"Where is Moebius, Elder?"

_"Beyond your reach, Raziel. I will not tell you where."_

"Fine," he replied simply. "And the Time Streamer will grow stronger by the day while you weaker. You cannot lie to me, Elder. You can die and you and I both know you are. He has to be stopped, otherwise you will die."

There was a long silence before the Elder grudgingly answered, _"He is in his fortress up in the mountains to the north. He waits for the day when his power will be high enough so he can end me. Watch your concubine well if you should take this path, Raziel, for there will be one who will take her if he is able."_

The Elder fell silent, and while Lara was deciding if she should attempt to kill him again (after all, they had gotten the information they had wanted out of him), Raziel turned to her.

"Can you swim?"

"Yes," she replied.

"I hope you can hold your breath for a while." And he jumped into the water without saying anything more. With a shrug, Lara followed, doing an elegant dive into the water. Raziel waited for her in the depths, then seeing her, headed into a cavern. Lara followed, noting the eyes of the giant squid below them following them. The cavern was in actuality a tunnel, but it was incredibly wide in places. She found she was having trouble keeping up with her companion. While on land he was no problem to stay up with, in water was a completely different story. He swam much like a dolphin or whale, his entire body curving up and down to let him glide through the water. Lara's typical swimming tactics, though quite capable, were slower than his were and he was forced to wait every so often for her to catch up.

Her lungs began to feel like they were on fire and still the tunnel showed no signs of ending. She had just gotten to the point that she was thinking death would be more comfortable than this tortured existence when the rock suddenly gave way to a huge lake. She nearly beat Raziel in her race for the surface and air. After breathing in deeply a few times, she moved onto the closest piece of land and sat down across it, coughing. Raziel climbed out of the water and sat down next to her, watching her.

"Are you still alive?"

"Yes," she managed to get out. "I must remember next time I go out on an adventure to bring air breathing gear. I've never had to hold my breath that long. Can we please try to avoid that again?"

"I won't promise anything," her companion answered honestly. "But I'll try."

"Thank you." She let her face fall against the ground as she just breathed. She felt Raziel's eyes on her.


	4. The Sarafan City

After a long moment more, Lara breathed in deeply and stood. She reached back and squeezed the water out of her braid, then turned to Raziel.

"Where to now?"

Raziel met her eyes unflinchingly. "If he's retreated up into the mountains, we're going to have to head up there. The problem is, the way up there is blocked by a Sarafan city. We'll have to pass through it to continue on our way."

"And let me guess," she stated with a sigh. "You're not popular with the crowd."

"Not particularly," he responded. "And you calmly travelling with me will mark you as a traitor."

"And a concubine?" she added testily. Raziel wisely did not comment. Instead, he headed into the forest, leaving her to follow or not at her choice. She cocked her head to the side slightly, then quickly caught up to him when she realized he had started to head toward the mountains. The peaks loomed over their heads and she realized they were quite close. There were more of the birds that vanished in a green luminescence around them and a new type of creature that looked like a tiny ball of light much like a firefly. Several flew into her face until she waved them away. Raziel gazed at her from the corner of his eye and watched as she breathed in deeply, tasting the air. Suddenly, she twitched and drew her pistols out in a swift move. She allowed her fingers to quiver around the handgrip of the gun slightly. Raziel turned slightly toward her.

"What do you feel, human? There are no Sarafan here."

She turned to him. "Contrary to the beauty and peace of this place, I never trust an area that's this quiet."

Though he knew there was nothing nearby to be cautious about, he had to give her credit for her wary nature. There was more to this woman than he previously guessed.

The path up to the mountains was long, but bland. There was nothing to fear for the time being, but Raziel knew that would change soon. He knew they were drawing close to the city. He'd be surprised if they didn't run into at least one hunting party. An eyebrow twitched. He actually looked forward to it.

His wish was granted a short time later when he sensed a large group of people ahead. He glanced at the human to see she was crouching down to pounce forward. He thought to make her pause and take them by surprise, then almost laughed at himself. She had taken down a demon with his help. These Sarafan warriors would stand for less time than it had. As a pair, they could go far.

Raziel shook his hand slightly and watched the ethereal pattern of the Soul Reaver manifest into existence. Though every time he used the Soul Reaver it threatened to take him over, he had no other appropriate weapon. He lunged forward only to find Lara moving in time with him. They were both hunters who would do whatever was necessary to win, and they had both found a partner in the other.

Lara dodged in and out among the Sarafan warriors, managing to keep an eye on Raziel as he slashed through a guard. The Soul Reaver flickered weakly until he struck another one. Its energy began to glow. The third slice left a burning gash on the third Sarafan warrior that fell to him. Lara eliminated a human coming toward her and watched in awe as Raziel's fourth kill was accompanied with a huge explosion, sending body parts everywhere. Lara commented wryly to herself that it looked much like when she blew someone up with her rocket launcher. And yet as she gazed at him, even though he seemed to fight with more grace, to cause more pain, his eyes dimmed slowly, almost in time to the Soul Reaver's growing glow. He seemed to be losing energy and vitality. It was almost like the energy weapon was taking him over. To avoid any such situation, Lara cut down the last Sarafan with her pistols. She suddenly noticed she could see a kind of green ethereal flame that hovered above the corpses that she had killed. The ones Raziel had killed did not have that flame. She cocked her head to the side as Raziel made the Soul Reaver disappear and he pulled the cloth away from his face, revealing the fact that he had no lower jaw. The flames raced toward his throat and just before they dove into his body, took the shape of green balls of energy. When he saw she was looking at him, he placed the cloth back over his mouth and shrugged.

"I eat the souls of those I kill."

"That's not what I'm wondering about," she responded. "You have no lower jaw, right?"

"Correct."

"How do you speak?"

He looked slightly perplexed that she would even think of that when she had just seen him eat souls, but answered, "I have gained the ability to alter the air and sound currents to create my voice. Don't ask any further. Just trust it works."

She turned away, but his voice stopped her. "I do have one question for you, however." She looked at him as he asked, "How do you shove so many things in your backpack?"

Lara pulled the backpack of her back and looked at it strangely. "Actually, I don't know. I've never paused to consider how much stuff it carries. I've just kind of put things in there and it's all fit somehow."

She opened it and looked inside when she noticed a strange pale green light emanating from the depths. She grabbed the light source and pulled out a very familiar green crystal.

"The restoration crystal," she murmured. "Why is it glowing?" She stood, still holding the crystal, and looked at her companion. Then she held it out to him.

"Take this for a second."

"Why?" Raziel glared ominously at the radiant crystal.

"Just take it."

With a sigh, he reluctantly took the crystal, thinking multiple names he would love to call this woman, but knowing that to keep the peace (for the time, anyway), it would be better he keep his mouth shut. Figuratively speaking.

The gem gave a sudden pulse and dissolved into a cloud of semitransparent glowing particles. They swirled quickly up into Raziel's face and surrounded his head. He tried to back up away from them, but at the same moment, they condensed on him, collecting below his jaw and over his neck. A fierce itching spread through his body in that area, something he hadn't felt for years. It faded when he reached up to find a solid form at his fingers. His throat had been closed over and the mist had formed a lower jaw, completing his face. He opened it carefully to find it a working replica. Lara watched him experiment for a moment, noting silently the fangs that rested in his upper mouth. At last Raziel spoke, using his new jaw.

"That was . . . odd," which was promptly followed up by, "I am out of practice speaking this way." He moved his jaw around a bit more before settling his mouth shut, then placing the cloth back across his nose. It had always been his personal symbol, but became even more so since his return from the Lake of the Dead. He turned to the Tomb Raider.

"Shall we continue? The city is only a bit farther from here. We can make it before nightfall. However . . ."

He trailed off, then before she could move, turned into a blur of movement. He pulled away a second later, but she found her top had rips in it as did her shorts. The shorts were in better condition than the top, however. Her top looked like it was about ready to fall off.

"Good," he grunted, not sounding particularly pleased, but not sounding disheartened, either. "We will get you in this way. You'll have to scream and go running up to the gates in a panic. The story is you ran into a vampire that tried to take a bite out of you and you came to the nearest place of safety. The vampire is still following you and is in the woods just a bit back, waiting to see if you'll come back out." As he spoke, he continued through the forest, stopping her when through the trees they could see a huge wall with a cathedral-looking structure looming over it.

"When they open the gates to go look for the vampire," Raziel continued, "I'll slip into the Spectral Realm and pass through the doors. From there we'll cross the city and get to the other side."

Lara turned to look at him, an eyebrow raised. "What is this Spectral Realm you speak of?"

"It is a realm next to and intersecting with this physical realm. It is where the spirits lie. Time runs differently there and to you what happens in a second takes minutes, even hours to occur for me when I'm in there."

"Hm . . ." she trailed off and looked to the large city. He started to push her forward, then paused.

"Oh yes, one other thing." Before she could react, he pulled her pack off her back and removed the pistols and the holsters from her legs and threw them in the pack.

"No weapons. They'll be suspicious if you have one. I'll give this back to you when we get in."

She growled unhappily. "I do not like being without a weapon."

"Oh well," he retorted. "It's necessary. Now go scream as if your life depended on it. If it helps," he added, "put all your frustration and hatred for me in it."

Lara grumbled for a moment before doing as was necessary. She didn't want to do it, but it wasn't like she had a choice. She raced out of the forest toward the city screaming, "VAMPIRE!" The two men on the watchtower saw her coming and shouted something down to their comrades below. She watched in satisfaction as the doors groaned open. She raced into the city and was met with welcoming arms.

"You were attacked?" a burly man dressed in full armor asked in a heavy accent. She nodded, acting too scared to speak.

"Is it still in the forest?" he continued. Again she nodded, letting her eyes get wide and quite scared-looking. For the first time in her life, she was quite grateful to the acting classes she had been forced to go through. He nodded shortly and a small group of men gathered around him and started out into the forest. A younger man, but just as large, pulled her away from the crowd and into a quiet corner. The people quickly dispersed, leaving her alone with this huge man and no weapons.

'Except one,' she murmured mentally, think about the dagger in her boot.

"Were you bitten?"

She was surprised to hear obvious concern in his voice. Concern! For a complete stranger!

"N . . . no," she managed out, sounding quite scared. "It was . . . just so, so—horrible!" If Raziel didn't show up soon, she was going to have to sweet-talk her way out of this, and she should probably get off to a good start if it was going to be necessary.

"I know," he replied sympathetically. "It will be harrowing for a while, but eventually—"

He never got to finish his sentence as her combat knife flew out of the darkness and plunged into his face, taking his life from him. Lara watched the body fall emotionlessly except for perhaps a hint of remorse. He had actually been kind of cute. Not in body, but in personality. She grabbed her combat knife, wiped it off on the body, and headed toward the dark shadow where she knew Raziel was.

"You, using a subtle method of killing?" she asked him. "It just doesn't seem right."

"That was subtle?" he responded, obviously thinking it hadn't been. Lara looked at him skeptically for a moment, then shook her head.

"Never mind. Where to now?"

"Across the city," he replied. He moved and looked up to the roof of the small house they stood next to. With a grunt of effort, he jumped up to the top, then pulled himself over, a jump that even Lara with her outstanding jumps could not reach. After a moment, the cloth that he always wore over his face dropped down, becoming a rope. She jumped out, caught hold, and was helped onto the roof. She watched as he spiraled the cloth around his face again and took off, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Lara followed after her companion as he nimbly moved across the labyrinth of houses. She was privately amazed; she had never seen someone able to move as easily as he. Even with the practice she had gone through, she couldn't even jump as effortlessly as he could. He paused on the other side of a large jump she knew she could make, but it would be an effort. She jumped back a few paces to get a run-up and dashed toward the end of the roof. Muscles contracted then released, leaving her in vacant air for a long moment. She caught hold of the edge of the roof and pulled herself up over the edge. Her foot caught on loose tiling and sent it careening down the smash on the cobbles next to a Sarafan guard. He glanced up to see the face of Raziel as he gazed down.

"Over here!" he called to his brethren.

"Not again," Raziel growled with a feral sigh. "Come, Lara. We have to get out of here. Now."

He raced across the tiles, Lara behind him. She heard multiple cracks of some fast moving object hitting the wall. When she glanced back, she saw the Sarafan were aiming a sort of primitive version of guns at them. She snorted contemptuously and followed Raziel as he jumped onto the wall surrounding the city and raced across it. When he reached the point that was the other side of the city from the main gates, he dropped to the ground on the outside of the city. Lara followed him and he twisted quickly and caught her before she touched the ground.

"Come along," he told her and continued into the forest while the city's second gates behind them creaked open. Raziel tossed her bag back to her as they ran. She threw it onto her back.

They stopped abruptly as they came to a huge cliff. A waterfall coursed down the mountain face not twenty feet from them. There was nowhere to go but _down_.

"Come here," he commanded. She paused only to wonder why on Earth she was listening to him before she stepped up in front of him.

"I am going to glide down there. You need to wrap your arms around my neck and hang on."

"Why don't I just dive into the water?" she inquired. With no offense to her blue-skinned companion, she didn't particularly relish the thought of hanging onto his neck as he glided down to the water. That would be a bit too close up and personal, thank you very much.

"I could make it."

"That actually wouldn't surprise me, but I'm not going all the way down. Now stop asking questions! You're wasting time."

Raziel grabbed Lara and jumped into the air as he heard feet pound the ground behind him. The remains of his wings snapped open and caught the air. He glided down about a hundred feet before turning toward the waterfall.

"Hang on," he warned Lara. He angled himself to go into the waterfall and through to the other side. The water encased Lara, then she was out and Raziel was gently setting her down on the rock floor of a hidden cavern. He turned back to the water, summoned the Soul Reaver, and charged it up for a bolt of power.

"Scream," he told her. "They need to think we burned in the water and fell to our death."

Understanding, she let out a cry of agony. She wasn't the screaming type, but she had nearly mastered the falling scream. Falling from heights over and over again had a habit of doing that to a person. Raziel fired the bolt of power at the same moment she screamed, and it rolled down the waterfall, making a respectable burning body. The two were silent for a long time, and when they didn't hear or see any signs of pursuit, Raziel visibly relaxed. He glanced around to find the Tomb Raider was gone. Startled, and he would never admit it, but panicked, he spotted her at the back of the cavern looking at the odd shades of the rock. She squatted and grabbed the edge of the rock and pulled. It turned out to be a square rock that could be pulled out. She managed to get it out so that the end was flush with the rock wall before she sat down and panted. Unlike most rocks, this one was heavier than normal. Raziel walked over to her. Lara suddenly found her blue-skinned companion standing above her, his legs bracing her back. He pulled his arms back and slammed his claws into the face of the rock. He looked like he merely twitched the muscles in his arms and the rock slid easily to the right. Lara looked up at him in an expression of half amusement, half-glaring.

"Show-off," she finally growled. He pulled the tabard away from his face for a moment to show he was smirking at her before he replaced it. Both walked into the small cave behind the rock. It was empty except for one thing which shed a familiar pale green light.

"Another restoration crystal?" Lara asked. She shrugged, having learned long ago when on the continent-island Atlantis not to ask. She turned to Raziel.

"I assume you're going to take it, right?"

"Of course."

Raziel reached out for the crystal, and as soon as he touched it, the symbol started glowing. Knowing what to expect, he braced himself when the crystal dissolved into insubstantial mist particles. They surrounded him and crept into his body, making what remained of his skin crawl. The mist solidified and dissipated to reveal a new, fully formed layer of skin, completing the outside of his body. It was still blue, but he held no arguments about that and wouldn't want it any other way. Lara blinked at him a few times, then shrugged and went back into the main cavern to put her back up against it and sleep.

Lara's eyes snapped open and she stood before yawning. She glanced around, reorienting herself, and saw Raziel was leaning against the mouth of the cavern's wall, looking out at the water. She moved up next to him as silently as a cat. At first, he didn't notice she was there. It was only when a flash of light out of the corner of his eye caught his attention did he notice her. The light had come from the pistols now replaced on either leg. His gaze continued up her body, across the torso, continuing up the chest and to the face. He didn't view looking at her in such a way the people of her world did; she understood that. It still made her uneasy to have him so blatantly looking at her. She swallowed the little bit of modesty that had risen (where had _that_ come from?!) and turned to look at him.

"Today we continue down the river. I hope you don't mind getting wet again."

She looked down the waterfall, then grinned impishly at him.

"Well, I guess I did need another bath."

She glanced down, returned to looking at him with the same grin, then turned and dived down. He stepped forward to watch her graceful arc which ended in a splash. He shook his head, somewhere between amused and uncaring and jumped off. He knew he was comfortable around this woman, and he knew he was uncomfortable at the same time. She amused him, and after a millennia of hatred and burning revenge, it was hard to get used to the emotional change. He longed to go back to the days when it was as simple as killing Kain, and yet, another part of him loved this time as it was, right here and now. That part rebelliously whispered that he enjoyed being amused by this woman, and if the way things were going and he found enough restoration crystals, he would enjoy other sensations with her. His eyes flashed and he crammed the thought back to the recesses of his mind.


	5. Clash of the Master Vampire and the Tomb...

Lara sloshed up the bank and turned to look for her companion. She watched him climb out of the water dripping. Well, that canceled any fear of him being a vampire. As far as she knew, no vampire could stand water. He didn't stop, but kept on walking, still appearing to not care if she came with him or not. She fell into step beside him as she pulled her pistols out of her holsters and started squeezing the holsters to try and dry them off a bit. With a resigned sigh, she knew nothing was going to save them, as the leather remained damp (not wet, mind you, just _damp_, and she hated dampness more than wet), and she just retied them to her legs.

The area around them was quiet and peaceful. Lara was slowly beginning to adjust to it, but her nerves were still frayed. She didn't think she'd ever be truly comfortable, even in a place as beautiful as this. In her own home she never felt like she was completely safe. Granted, anyone who dared attack her there would not come out alive, but she knew her home was not her impenetrable castle. Nothing was.

Raziel suddenly stopped when he caught sight of something white poking out from behind a tree. He stepped toward it to find it to be the foot of a dead Sarafan warrior. The neck was snapped and its eyes were open in a never-ending horror. Raziel stood and looked around, knowing whose calling card it was.

"Where are you Kain?" Raziel's eyes narrowed as he spoke. Lara's hand rested an inch above her pistols. A soft malicious chuckling filled the air.

"Well, well, well," a voice almost purred in a sarcastic amusement. "I would never have thought you of it, Raziel."

Both turned to gaze at the man who leaned against a tree not ten feet away. His skin was a pale yellow-green and he wore black pants with a cloth draped over his right shoulder. It had a strange symbol on it that she was not familiar with. He turned to look at them and made a half grin, exposing long canines.

"Let me guess," Lara murmured. "A vampire?"

"Correct, woman," their new arrival responded. "And I know you for what you are, human." He turned back to Raziel, dismissing her from sight and mind. Lara closed her mouth on her growing rage.

"What are you doing here, Kain?" Raziel demanded.

"Looking for you, actually. You don't think I haven't been worried about my little Soul Reaver?" Kain's grin had changed to a mocking one. Raziel's eyes flared.

"I am not your _little Soul Reaver_, and do not think for an instant I have forgotten what you have done to me."

Kain's smile changed and melted off his face in an instant. "I have never forgotten, Raziel. I have been looking for you for a long while. You had seemed to vanish off the face of the planet after you killed your Sarafan brethren, and yet now you appear. Why?" Before Raziel could answer, his gaze shifted onto the woman again.

"And who is your concubine? I'd have never thought you'd had it in you."

"I am not his concubine," Lara told him in a quiet, soft voice. Quiet and soft in that she was trying to hold back her rage.

"Fine. Lover, then."

Lara's eye twitched. She grabbed the rocket launcher off her back and aimed it for him. He looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

"Am I supposed to be threatened?"

A corner of her mouth twitched upward. "You should be." And she fired, sending one rocket careening over a space of ten feet. To her sheer amazement, Kain calmly reached up and _caught_ the rocket. He looked at it a moment, made a face of disgust at it, and threw it behind his shoulder. The rocket sailed through the air where it hit trees and rocks with a loud, booming explosion. Kain stared after it for a moment, blinking. Lara stared in turn at him.

"I'm impressed," he finally stated.

"As am I," Lara replied.

The two glared daggers at one another for a long moment. Raziel had chosen not to get involved, and watched the two stare down the other. The corner of Kain's mouth twitched upward, then he smiled broadly as both stopped glaring at one another.

"I am Kain," he introduced himself. "You are, my Lady?"

"I am Lara Croft. Pleasure to meet you."

She took his out stretched hand and he brought the back of her hand up to his mouth and kissed it lightly. "The pleasure is mine, I'm sure." Raziel's eye twitched as he watched the performance. He wasn't quite sure why, but it did. Kain stood and turned to Raziel.

"What are you two doing and where are you going?"

Raziel quickly explained to him the story of the Pillars growing on other worlds and Moebius' attempts to spread his reign of influence. He added that Lara had come from the other world.

"I could have guessed that much," Kain snorted. "Hm. So you seek to get to Moebius' fortress? There is a way much faster than this. We can travel through Nupraptor's keep."

"Isn't it abandoned?" Raziel inquired.

"Not yet," was the response.


	6. The Third Crystal and Sarafan Warriors

Kain turned and began walking slightly northwest into the forest. Lara looked at Raziel with a questioning expression. He shrugged and followed after the master vampire. Lara sighed deeply, and after a moment, followed him.

The three walked in perfect silence for a long while, no one saying a thing. Lara and Kain tried to study the other without their opposite knowing and found it to be much harder than previously planned. Kain noted the same things that marked her as an off-worlder that Raziel did with a few additions. For one, her image or interference was nowhere in Nosgoth's history, something only a few people would know. He was one. Moebius was another. There was one other thing which he noted of interest: something about her _felt_ similar to himself. After a few moments of thought, he realized it was the feeling of a Guardian. And, strangely enough, she felt like she had the energy of the Balance Pillar all over her. He turned to her.

"You're a Guardian, aren't you?"

She blinked at him a few times.

"I personally just found that out yesterday. And I _still_ don't know what's so bloody important about that."

Kain looked over at Raziel without responding to her annoyed comment.

"You manage to pick some very strange company, Raziel."

"I think you could give me a good run on that one, Kain," was the retort.

Lara just shook her head as she looked between the two. Both had an _off_ feeling about them, but who was she to say anything? She ran around on lost continents and fought mythological creatures. She was a far cry from normalcy.

The trio traveled on until they came to a huge mountain . . . retreat, for lack of a better term. Carved in the mountains, the structure was in the shape of a huge skull that gazed dispassionately across the land. Kain quickly showed them the way through it.

"Nupraptor's keep," Raziel murmured.

"A man who was well-known for his illusions," Kain responded. He glanced back at Lara and quickly gave her a run-down on how the Pillars had Guardians and how dark forces had been seeking the end of them. He told her of the assassination of Ariel, the Guardian of the Pillar of Balance before Kain, and how Nupraptor had found her corpse and infected the other Guardians with his insanity in fear of a traitor.

They quickly reached the top of the building, avoiding the few beings who wandered down the lonely halls. A few became too inquisitive for their own good, but Lara's pistols and Raziel's Soul Reaver were a quick deterrent against them. They came to the huge eyes of the skull. While Kain and Raziel studied a few runes on the wall, she glanced out of one window to see a long, unbroken view of Nosgoth in its glory. She headed to the other eye to see if the view was slightly different only to find a _huge_ change of scenery. This view was of a broken and decrepit Nosgoth, a world in which only fire and hate lived. Raziel walked up quietly behind her.

"Two views of our world," he stated softly. "The one you're looking at now is what this world will look like in the future with the way it stands now. We're trying to stop that."

"One of these days, Raziel," she commented softly, "we're going to have to sit down for a long unbroken while and you can explain to me in detail what's happened here."

"Come along," Kain's voice came to them from the hall. They followed the master vampire as he walked through a large chamber with intricate symbols decorating the walls. Raziel stopped suddenly and walked to a corner of the room and examined it carefully.

"What are you doing?" Kain demanded. Lara found her mouth open to make the same inquiry. Raziel ignored him and touched a place on the wall. To their surprise, a part of the wall slid in and away, revealing another chamber behind it. He stepped in while Lara and Kain followed. In the room amid several images of the blue-skinned, winged race was a single olive green restoration crystal. Raziel reached up and touched it gently, watching as the hard surface disintegrated into a mist of green particles and washed over his body, forming this time over his wings. A fierce itching spread across the tattered remains and remained for much longer than the two times before. When the annoyance finally faded, he refused to look behind him, almost afraid of what he might see. He heard Kain chuckle softly and an impressed whistle from Lara. He glanced back and stretched the skin to find a pair of wings, bones fully intact and restored to mobility. He moved out into the open and beat them a few times. He found them to be in working order. Beneath the tabard, an unbelieving smile broke out across his face.

"All right, Icarus," Lara said with a laugh as she watched him explore the lengths of his wings. "Your wings have been glued on. Don't fly too close to the sun this time."

"Hm?" Raziel looked at her, a puzzled expression evident. She shook her head.

"It's an old legend from a place called Greece in my world. The story is about a young boy whose father glues a pair of feathered wings on his back so they can escape. He warns his son not to fly too close to the sun because the glue is made primarily of wax. His son enjoys his wings and glides with the birds, soon forgetting his father's warning and flying too high. The wax melts and he plummets to his doom."

"How pleasant."

"The Greeks were romantics, but they were not sentimentalists."

"If we are quite done with the history lesson," Kain interrupted, "we are near the final hall."

The trio fell silent again as they continued in. When they came to a pair of huge double doors, Kain pushed them open slightly and indicated for them to stay low and close to the back wall. He looked out around the corner to see a young male dodging through rolling balls to try to cut down a man who sat in a chair and laughed at his progress. Lara peeked around Kain's torso to see the young man had very pale skin and white hair pulled up. He finished off the old man in a spectacular display and lopped off his head. The young man walked over and picked it up.

"Poor Nupraptor," he commented with a sigh, "for I knew him well . . . Well, not really."

The male laughed to himself, turned and headed out the door. Beside her, Kain chuckled quietly. Raziel just shook his head slightly. Kain walked out into the open and through the chamber with the Soul Reaver and the Tomb Raider following.

"How long is he going to be with us?" Lara asked Raziel quietly. He shrugged.

"Kain doesn't usually stay around very long, but who knows? This is a situation I don't think anyone was expecting."

The fresh air that blasted into Lara's face as they walked out was a welcome relief. She was even pleased to see the little glowing bugs.

. . . Wait a minute. _Pleased_ to see the glowing bugs?! She mentally thwapped herself and sighed deeply. This place was beginning to grow on her. Not a good sign.

"Vampire!" a voice suddenly shouted. Lara looked up to see a group of about twenty Sarafan warriors armed with scythes and swords racing toward them threateningly. Kain smiled slightly.

"Oh good. I was getting hungry."

Raziel's eyes flared. "As was I."

Lara looked at the two a moment, then sidled away and pulled out her pistols in a quick move. So far, she was shooting more humans than vampires. Just like old times.

She took out a few of the Sarafan, but quickly stopped and just watched. She had already seen Raziel in action, but this was the first time she had seen Kain in a fight. To her surprise, he let the first get awfully close, then easily grabbed and ripped the blade out of his hands. In a quick and practiced move, he brought the blade down, nearly cutting the human in half. Lara had a feeling he could have if he had chosen to.

She watched his performance in awe at his sheer ability in a battle. Beside him, Raziel broke through another's guard and impaled him on the ethereal blade. She looked between the two, noting similarities and differences. Kain was controlled, a power that had direction and tight lines. Raziel was feral, a thunderstorm that knew no bounds and would tolerate no laws over him. But both fought like it had been what they were raised for. The sword was their trusted friend, the battle lust their love. Blood and killing their meat and drink, and death their lover.

When the battle was silent, Kain and Raziel having ended all their short lives, she began to clap softly. Both men turned to look at her. She nodded her head toward Kain as she applauded to indicate it was he she had found her respect boosted for. The corners of his mouth twitched upward as he swung his arm out and bowed deeply. Lara's eyebrow raised. The bow was graceful and spoke of a man who had done it more than once and probably on a fairly regular schedule. A noble perhaps? There was apparently more to him than there seemed.

Lara reloaded her pistols and looked up at the two men. Raziel took the lead after shooting Kain a dirty look. Lara followed him, and Kain brought up the rear. The three continued silently for a long while, the greenery of the forest lulling them into a companionable silence. Lara looked around at the peace and realized how much she liked it. Yet still her fingers stayed only a few inches away from her pistols. They were her only bet for her life here.

"So tell me, Lara," Kain began from behind her. "What possessed you to become Raziel's lover?"

"At least you use the phrase 'lover'," Lara grumbled. "But nothing possessed me. I am not his lover."

"But you did seem to be quite comfortable traveling with him and you did seek him out first as a guide."

Lara shook her head. "I'm only comfortable around him because we've fought together and I've seen how well he can fight. He's someone I would trust at my back. And I did not seek him out first. He just happened to be the first one I found."

"Hm. So you are not his lover?"

"No!"

"Then are you to say that you are free?"

Both Lara and Raziel looked back at him simultaneously with the same expression of 'are you kidding me?!' written on their faces.

"Go . . . go teleport off somewhere and make yourself useful," Lara demanded. "I am _not_ going to discuss my love life with you. If I wanted people constantly hitting on me, I would have stayed at home! I have enough problem with it there that I don't need it here."

Kain sighed. "Too bad," he murmured. He said it to her, but kept his eyes on Raziel, enjoying the flash of anger he saw there. It amused him to see Raziel of all people jealous. And even better, he wasn't aware the jealousy was there.

The forest around them slowly widened and opened up to hills and beyond that mountains. Lara was enlightened to the fact that they would have to go through the foothills to get up to the mountains. They traveled down a well-beaten path that carved through the land, causing the rock to go up on either side of them to heights of thirty feet. Suddenly, the path opened up to what looked like a mountain pass. Male voices flew on the breeze to where they stood. Straining her eyes, Lara could just make out the images of hundreds of Sarafan warriors all marching down the close path two by two. Raziel growled low in his throat. He glanced at Kain and Kain nodded. Lara noted immediately some thought passed between the two, but she was left out as to what it was.

"What?" she demanded. Raziel looked down at her.

"The Time Streamer holds a staff which enables him to incapacitate his vampire enemies. Somehow, these warriors either have it, or they have some magical connection to it which allows them to travel in its area of influence."

"Moebius never lets that staff out of his hands," Kain told them. "So I am betting it is a focus of some sort which allows them to do this."

"So what you're saying," Lara summed up, "is that in this fight you two aren't going to be at your peak."

"Yes."

"Wonderful." She rolled her eyes slightly, then happened to stop on the cliff of the pass. The rock wasn't solidly carved, but instead almost looked like it was asking for an avalanche, all sorts of oddly shaped rocks precariously balanced on each other. She grinned and pulled out the rocket launcher.

"Not this again, Lara," Kain said with a sigh. "You can't kill me with that."

"Who said I was trying to kill you?" she retorted. She aimed the rocket launcher toward the Sarafan.

"And _that_ certainly won't work," came the comment from the master vampire. "You could not possibly have enough of whatever it is you use to charge that thing to take them all out."

She tossed him a slight knowing grin over her shoulder, then turned back to the sight and took aim. Then with a quick flick of her arms, she turned it to the rock wall and fired three times, sending three rockets careening toward it. For good measure, she sent another three to the other side. The rocks poured down toward the path having been shifted and thrown by Lara's rockets. Two landslides smashed down into the path, and unfortunately for the humans, right into the Sarafan. Dust and chipped rock shards flew through the air as Lara watched her handy work with a malicious smile on her face. From behind her, Kain chuckled.

"I will admit, you are by far one of the most . . . interesting humans I have met. If only humanity as a whole was much more like you."

"If humanity as a whole was like me," Lara replied, "I'd be out of a job."

The dust cleared to reveal the few surviving Sarafan who had been able to get out of the way in time. Raziel looked askance at Lara to see if she wanted any part of the ending of the remaining humans. She shook her head.

"Go ahead. Have fun."

While Raziel finished off the last, Kain was looking through the rubble for the focus they had used to connect the staff's power and the warriors. He shoved away huge boulders like they were paperweights until he found what he was looking for. It was a wand-sized replica of the staff, complete with the snake curling around the staff and trying to swallow the blue-purple crystal. With a grimace of distaste, he shattered it, immediately feeling the relief of not having the thing's power pressed against his. Raziel wadded through the rocks and bodies to stand next to him and watched Lara's careful progress from boulder to boulder to meet them. When she was standing next to them and looking up at them expectantly, Kain glanced over his shoulder toward the direction they would be travelling.

"There is a town just up ahead. The day grows old and we are traveling with a human who must rest whether she admits it or not." Kain held up a forestalling hand to quiet Lara's protest. "We have only one problem with staying there as I see things."

"And that is?" Raziel inquired. Kain met his eyes.

"You."

"How would you hide what you are?" Lara asked Kain. A corner of his mouth twitched upward and he made a small motion with his hand. A very pastel, multicolored mist rose around his form, then cleared to reveal a human male dressed in clothes that would mark him as a well to do man, higher than a peasant, but lower than a noble. He looked down at himself and grimaced.

"It's a far cry from what I used to be, but it will attract less attention."

She noted with some amusement that his voice was the same. The illusion wavered and vanished like a mirage as he gazed thoughtfully at Raziel.

"Hm. Come here, Raziel. It is time you are taught this ability. I think ultimately that will aid our cause faster than anything."

" 'Our' cause?" Raziel repeated. "When have you ever worked for anyone's cause, Kain? What cause do you have going behind the scenes?"

"Raziel," he retorted in a tone that was a strange mix of mock-surprise that he would say anything like that and a condescending tinge. "How could you ever say such things of me?"

"Very easily. I know you."

"All right, boys, enough," Lara broke in. "We have things to do and it's probably going to take long enough _without_ you two bitching at each other."

Kain quickly drew Raziel over to the side and taught him what he needed to know while Lara kept an eye out on the area around them. She didn't understand what they were saying, nor did she care to learn it. Magic was something that she never believed in. Even now she found it hard to believe it existed. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing that was magical. It was all some sort of paranormal energy or ability, but not magic. There was always a reason for everything.

"All right, Lara," a voice said behind her. She turned to find a man she didn't recognize standing there. He had blonde hair cut short and gray eyes with a slightly paler than normal complexion. It took her a minute to realize it was Raziel.

"We're ready to go."

"Actually," Kain said from where he had moved next to her, "no, we're not. Lara, here women do not keep their hair long after childhood. You—"

"I am NOT cutting my hair," she growled in a feral tone. She reached up and quickly unbraided her hair, letting it fall to nearly her knees. Then she twisted it up in a sort of bun, curled it under, and retied it so the end of the ponytail barely touched her shoulders. It made her look like she had short hair and made Raziel realize how much better he liked her with long hair.

"Better?"

Kain blinked at her a moment. "I don't think I will ever understand women and their hair."

"Don't bother," was the response. "You're not supposed to be able to."

He shook his head before reapplying the illusion. Then he took the lead and walked down the path. Rounding the bend in the path, she was confronted with a rather small town, but with people walking in and out of buildings. They looked curiously at the newcomers, but said nothing of it. Kain led them surly as if he had been there before. He headed immediately for what consisted of an inn. He handled buying the rooms, and Lara only caught bits of, "What is the world coming to?" out of the innkeeper and something from Kain which sounded suspiciously like, "ménage à trois," followed quickly by the keeper's laughter. A nearby barmaid glanced around Kain at her, then looked at Raziel, and commented something along the lines of, "Lucky woman." Kain laughed and handed something across the table to the keeper and nodded to Raziel and Lara.


	7. Vampires and Card Games

When they got to the room, Lara immediately demanded of Kain, "What's with giving the idea out that we're a ménage à trois?"

He chuckled softly. "You said yourself that you didn't want people constantly 'hitting on you' as you so delicately put it. Think of it, woman. We're in the middle of a human village and you're probably the first new woman these human males have seen in a long time. And your appearance tells everyone you're foreign, and that would only add to the attraction. How many of them do you think will dare try to sleep with you if they think you have two able-bodied lovers who will fight for your honor at any moment?"

Lara fell silent, wishing she could find some quick retort, but knowing she wouldn't be able to. What he said _did_ have merit, and was quite considerate of him, too. Of course, he was probably just trying to avoid any . . . unsightly mishaps, but the thought was still there.

"So, what are we going to do?"

"_You_," Kain stressed, "are going to go rest. We're stopping here only for you."

Lara glared at him at the reminder that she was human and, as such, more fragile than he. He continued.

"Raziel and I will be staying in here for the night to keep up appearances. However, we'll need to feed, but not for a while."

Lara shrugged, threw her bag on the foot of the bed, and pulled her weapons off her legs. She headed into the bathroom and filled up the bath with warm water. She needed a long warm bath. Actually, she'd kill for a shower, but holding someone, especially here on Nosgoth, at gunpoint and demanding a shower seemed a tad . . . rude.

After about an hour, she pulled herself from the embrace of the water with a sigh. It had started to get cold, otherwise she might have been in there all night. She dried off, changed, and walked out into the room to find both Kain and Raziel sitting across from each other at a table. They had been speaking softly, but when she stepped out, they fell silent. Guess it had been about her they had been conversing. She ignored them completely and curled up in bed, fully intending to go to sleep. Sleep, on the other hand, had taken one look at her company and run the other direction. She could feel an obvious tension between her two male companions, and the not-overtly hostile environment was keeping her quite awake. She stood suddenly, grabbed something from her bag, and pulled up a seat next to them. In her hands was a stack of white pieces of parchment, each about a palm wide. She shuffled the cards, then dealt them expertly.

"What are these?" Raziel asked softly. She chuckled.

"They're cards. And I am going to teach you some card games."

"Why?"

She smiled. "You would be surprised how entertaining cards are on long, sleepless nights."

Both men held their reservations about playing a game with parchment until she started teaching them games. The quickly mastered bridge, old maid, gin, presidents, and blackjack. It took them a bit longer to pick up on ERF, bullshit, and spoons.

"Why do I want one of these spoons?" Kain demanded as she taught him the rules to the game with the same title. He held up one of the fore mentioned utensils.

"It's just part of the rules," she responded. "I didn't make the game. I just play it."

Once they had those games down, she taught them poker and played a few games. She then explained the rules of strip poker, though she refused to play (not for lack of trying on Kain's part— Raziel wisely did not get involved). There was, of course, the old favorite, go fish. Then she taught them slapjack.

"So the point of this one is to hit this card called a jack," Raziel clarified as he held up the card, "so that one can get the cards underneath?"

"Yes. And the point is to get all the cards at the end of the game."

"I like the kind of game that ends with you holding the entire deck," Kain murmured to himself.

"As long as it's you that holds them, and not your opponent," Lara commented with a laugh. He nodded.

"Of course. And I'll make sure they're in my hands by the end."

Raziel nodded in agreement, and Lara began to feel that she was missing something important, that it was some sort of code that passed between the two. They often made references to holding the cards, especially in the matter of one's life. She just didn't know what they were hinting at.

She began to deal out for a game of slapjack, then took a good look at her opponents. Both had the speed of vampires, as well as the strength, hated to lose, and had hands adorned with three long claws wider than three of her fingers rolled together. She quickly grabbed the cards and reshuffled.

"On second thought, I'll let you boys play that later. I just looked at my adversaries and realized what a mistake I would make in playing that with you."

She could feel sleep beginning to gnaw at the edge of her mind, so she quickly taught them a two person game to entertain themselves with. She taught them speed.

"Now keep it down until I fall asleep, please, boys," she told them. "Oh, and I have one last game to teach you." She raised the cards in her hand, then sent them flying in an arch of cascading cards. "Fifty-two pick-up." She headed over to her bed, curled in it, and was asleep before she heard the first slam of claws and cards indicating the victor of the first of many games to come in the night.

She woke slowly to the loud sound of, "Again!" She yawned and rubbed her eyes, allowing herself to wake up gradually. She usually never let herself do so. When she woke up, she was wide-awake. But she had a master vampire and a Soul Reaver in her room with her, and if they hadn't done anything to her yet, they weren't going to. And even though she didn't know them very well, she was willing to trust them to guard her as she slept because she knew they would. Somewhere along the line, somewhere in the trip, 'necessary companion' had turned into 'friend,' and they all knew it.

Lara grimaced vaguely as she stood and moved over to the table to watch Kain and Raziel play. She recognized the game as speed, but had never seen anyone play it so fast before. Their hands looked more suited to maiming and killing, but they both held and dealt cards with the precision and delicacy that only the most trained dealers gain. She watched them play game after game in a series of minutes. Surveying the speed at which their hands moved, she remarked, "I am very glad now that I did not play slapjack with you."

"Why is that?" Both Raziel and Kain looked up at her, their hands finishing the final moves before settling down over the deck like butterflies just alighting on a petal. She mentally frowned at the analogy; neither of these men really reminded her of butterflies in any way, shape, or form.

She blinked at them a moment. "If you don't know the answer to your own question, I'm ashamed of you." She glanced around the room, picked up her clothes, and stepped into the bathroom to change. She came out again to see them finishing a game.

"One more," Kain answered to her silent query. Cards were dealt, then slammed on the table with remarkable agility and speed. A single sound of claws hitting wood sounded as both put their last card down. They both looked at the cards for a long moment.

"I win," Kain stated softly.

"I disagree," was the sharp retort. Both males glared at each other for a long moment, then turned to look at Lara for help. She held her hands up like they had pulled a gun on her.

"Oh no! I am not getting into this."

"Come on, Lara," Raziel called to her as she started to walk away to pack. "We need a judge and a tiebreaker."

"As far as I could see," she answered over her shoulder, "you both ended at the same time. So I'm no good to ask."

Raziel looked at Kain. "Draw?"

"Draw."

Kain took the cards and shuffled them together. They shared a look and nodded. Raziel stood and headed for the door while Kain paused.

"Oh, Lara? One thing before we leave."

"Yes?" She turned to look at him. He had the cards up in the air in a bent angle in his hand. He sent them out in a spray of cards to fall around her face and body in a snow of white, red, and black.

"It's your turn to play fifty-two pick-up." He walked out the door with Lara glaring at him. If looks could kill, Kain might have found himself dead. Again. But after the door was firmly shut, the glare melted off her face to be replaced by an amused twitch of her mouth. After a moment of struggling against the smile, Lara gave up and chuckled quietly to herself. She packed up her things (including the cards), strapped her guns onto her legs and sat on the edge of the bed and waited. After about half an hour, "Kain" leaned in and asked if she was ready to go. He had replaced the illusion about his form and she guessed so too had Raziel. She stood and followed him out into the open.

Humans wandered everywhere in the town, all looking like they had somewhere to go, or something to do, though a few of them looked like wandering was what they had to do. Many pairs of eyes were turned toward her, most male and appraising. She glared back at them, but they didn't seem to get the hint. One or two of them even moved in toward her, but decided against it when Kain pulled back next to her and Raziel put his arm around her waist. That caught her off-guard, and that was putting it mildly. Though they had been parading as her two lovers, she hadn't really paused to think that it might entail some touching between them. Oh well. Shame on her for not having thought of it before.

Raziel gave the men who dared try to get to Lara a look that promised a slow and painful death. For most men, to see her with his arm around her was enough, but for those dense enough, the look was certainly perfect to get them to swallow nervously and step away. He kept his arm around her even when they got to the end of the village. He told himself it was because he was afraid some man might come out of any one of the houses, but something buried deeply within him whispered that wasn't the case. When in doubt about what that voice said, he did what he always did; he ignored it.

Suddenly, something got his attention, a feel of something familiar. There was a small cathedral at the end of the town. He released Lara and climbed the steps into it. Light fell through colored mosaics of glass to land on the rock floor. He followed his instincts, and in one of the side room found a statue of a winged humanoid image. Neither the feet nor the hands could be seen, the hands enveloped in the folds of the robe, and the feet covered, but Raziel recognized the work. It was an image of one of the winged race. The humans must have thought it was an angel because there was nothing to give away it wasn't. He felt the call resonate in the statue. Kain quickly shut the door and let the illusion over him bleed away. Raziel did the same. He pulled his arm back and released a telekinetic bolt, smashing the face of the sculpture. He felt a moment of regret for having to do it, but shook his head and got rid of it. Inside the statue was a flicker of green light. He walked over to it and pulled out another restoration crystal. The crystal dissolved in his hands, flowing down across his chest to his torso. When the mist dissipated, he found a full torso complete with flesh and organs to finish off the changes the crystals had wrought. It was the final crystal for him to be complete. Kain looked mostly unimpressed. Lara, on the other hand, had an arm over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. The crystal really _had_ restored everything, and recently he had never found the need to wear anything. She wanted to laugh because it amused her that he had need of pants again and that he hadn't seen such an situation coming. She raised an eyebrow, bit her lip to get control of herself, and when she was calm, said, "Big boy, aren't you?" She turned and walked out of the room, barely managing to contain her laughter.

She sat on the stairs outside, waiting for them to come out. A few minutes later, the two walked out with the illusions back in place. Even through the illusion, she could see Raziel was wearing something now. He ignored her as she walked past, and she didn't blame him. She had to fight to keep a straight face. Kain offered her his hand. She took it and stood up, nodding that she was reading to go on. The three continued out into the forest, away from the village. When they were a few miles away, the illusion spells on both Raziel and Kain bled away.

"Enough of that form," Kain grumbled to himself quietly. Lara looked at him a moment, then shook her head and turned away. She found Raziel standing in front of her. His chest was still bare (short of the tabard, of course), but he now wore smooth black pants. She wondered where he had gotten them from, but decided she really didn't want to know. As she looked up at him, she realized he looked intensely familiar. Her eyebrows knit together as she thought, then realized what it was. He had the same facial structure and expression that human in the mural had in the Sarafan temple when she had first arrived. Her eyes widened as Raziel cocked his head to the side.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," she replied quickly. "I just put two and two together."

"And made five," Kain added from where he stood. She glanced back at him.

"How much further?"

"Not too far," was the response. "It's up ahead, though we'll have to go through one more pass, but there shouldn't be anyone there."

She nodded and didn't say anything, waiting for one of the two men to take the lead. She STILL didn't like not going first, but she still wasn't in a place she knew.

Again, the trip down the path was uneventful. Kain continued to stay with them and said nothing as to when he was leaving. Not that him not saying anything surprised Raziel. Kain had a tendency of disappearing and reappearing when he found it necessary, not when anyone else did. Lara followed silently after Kain, her hands resting on her pistols.

"How long do you think it will take for us to reach the fortress?" Raziel asked from behind her.

"Are we there yet?" Lara added in. Both men looked down at her with a strange expression, and she gave them her best angelic smile.

"I'm assuming you are attempting to imitate a little child when you said that," Kain clarified.

"If you can't figure it out," Lara responded, "I'm not going to tell you."

Kain looked like he might argue, then glanced across at Raziel, and decided against it. Not here and now, anyway. But there was always time later.

After an hour of walking, the path suddenly gave way to a huge clearing in the mountains. Against the far right side was a huge fortress. There weren't any doors, but instead there was a gigantic gate with a silver-blue crystal above it. Other than that, the place was empty, devoid of life. At least, as far as they could see.

"Why aren't there any Sarafan warriors?" Lara asked in an undertone to Raziel. He shook his head.

"I was trying to figure that out myself. I would think this place would be crawling with them, but apparently not."

With cautious glances around, the trio made their way to the huge gate. On the metal were select runes and both Raziel and Kain recognized them.

"Hm," Kain murmured to himself. "The runes are wards, and would keep you out, even in the Spectral Realm," he commented quietly, his eyes resting on Raziel. "The gate is bolted shut and covered with so many wards that I don't think even I could get in there."

"So you're saying," Lara drawled from behind him, "is that the crystal up there is our only lead on how to get in?"

"Yes."

Raziel indicated the crystal as he told her, "Moebius has always favored colored crystals with various magical properties. There's always a way in. It's just a matter of finding it."

"So how do we find it?"

"We look."

He glanced around and spotted another path at the other side of the small valley. She followed his gaze and sighed. Another path they would have to go down. Didn't this place have anything other than paths? Well, it was better than a beaten trail.


	8. Lara enjoys reevaluating her opinion: Oh...

Kain was intently studying the designs on the gate. Raziel moved over to him.

"Thinking something on here will give us a clue?"

"Hoping, Raziel, just hoping."

"In my experience, boys," Lara's voice said from the other side of the clearing, "the answer to a puzzle is never right next to it."

Both men looked after her to see she was heading down the other path, Desert Eagle out and ready. She didn't glance back to see if they were following. Kain sighed deeply and Raziel let a hand drift up to cover his eyes as he shook his head.

"We have a very . . ." Raziel began.

"_Eccentric_," Kain supplied.

". . . Woman on our hands."

Kain looked at him for a moment. "You found her."

"You didn't kill her."

Suddenly, Lara leaned back around the twist in the trail and looked back at the two of them.

"Are you two coming, or not?"

Raziel walked after her quickly and Kain just watched him, amused. He had never thought he'd see the day that Raziel would answer to whims of a human woman. He shook his head slightly and followed after the pair.

Lara glanced back to watch Raziel move up to where she stood. She still couldn't get over the fact that he was the person from the mural in the temple. It was more of the fact she hadn't known what she was getting into when she complimented him. Although, strangely enough, out of seeing him both ways, she preferred the way he was now. It just seemed to fit him better, even if it was the less human of the two. But, then, what humans did Lara ever seem to get along with? Was it really that strange she would find a good companion in a Soul Reaver and a master vampire? … Naaahhh.

Raziel silently noted another of Lara's sidelong glances. Hadn't it been the other way around not two days ago? He had been the one studying her, not the other way around. She had sized him up, decided how she viewed him, and hadn't changed it since. Now it was apparently changing, and he didn't know why.

Kain stood behind the two, an amused smile dancing across his face as he glanced from one to the other. Though this had nothing to do with saving his world, this was probably the most fun that he had experienced in years. He was usually manipulating the world and it's affairs, but why not take a break and play matchmaker for a while? It could be most amusing.

The path they were travelling down suddenly opened wide to show a smooth cliff face. Embedded in the stone was a huge door with no markings or designs of any sort short of one: a large spiral engraved in the stone with the words _Only full-blooded life may open this, only with the heat's kiss._ Lara walked up to it, looking at the words, then at the spiral.

"Full-blooded life," Raziel murmured. He glanced at Kain. "A human or still-living creature."

Kain nodded mutely and met Raziel's gaze. "And we have only one of them with us."

Lara, on the other hand, was completely ignoring them. This was far more her forte than ending the threat of humans (though that came in as a close second). Her eyes narrowed as she glared at the obstacle in front of her. Full-blooded life . . . Well, her Soul Reaver and master vampire companion did not count as that, so that meant it was for her to figure out. But only with heat's kiss? Was she supposed to kiss the center of the spiral? She peered at the center of the spiral and saw the image of what looked like a human heart. A heart? Of course, it was what made her human, a living human, not like the talking corpses that were vampires. And what made that difference? . . . _Blood!_ Her blood pumped through her veins, unlike the vampire behind her. She grabbed her combat knife out of her boot and cut the tip of her finger. Watching the ruby red color well up, she placed it on the beginning to the whorl and made sure her blood coated the stone as her finger traveled its way to the center. At the core, her blood spread to fill in the heart and the door shuddered in response. The red liquid coiled away across the door and again the door quivered, but much more strongly. She felt gears churn on the other side and the gate moved back and slid into the stone to the right. She looked back at her companions to see they were staring at her.

"What?!" she demanded. Raziel just blinked at her and Kain shook his head. She blinked in confusion at them, then shrugged as Raziel walked past her into the hallway beyond. She fell into step behind him and settled into a calm walking pace, letting her eyes fall on Raziel's wide shoulders. She did have to admit it was fun traveling behind him. She let her eyes drop to watch the muscles play across his back under his wings and fully intended to stop there. Yet, even then, she found her eyes dropping far lower than modesty allowed. She brought her eyes hastily back up, realizing that she was being totally out of character around Raziel, especially now since the last crystal. What in hell was wrong with her?! She wasn't attracted to anyone!

. . . Well, that was a lie, really, but never had she acted like some teenager with a crush before! This was above and beyond the call of duty! She needed to get out of here and away from Raziel's presence soon, otherwise she didn't know what hell could break out . . .

She shook her head quickly to bring herself from her musings as she realized her eyes had dropped again.

'Mental note to oneself,' she thought to herself grimly. 'Either stand in front of Raziel or stand behind Kain. One of the two.'

Raziel glanced up at the walls around them. Like so many of the ruins he had found, this one was crafted by the winged races' hands. But it had been built to let a human in, not the Wielder of the Reaver. That caught his curiosity. As did the murals on either side. As always, the ever-present image of the Reaver was everywhere, but there was a new image here, one he hadn't seen before. It was small and set in the upper corner as if to be seen only by those who were supposed to see it. The image was of a pair of dark glasses set against a pair of crossed weapons much like the ones strapped to Lara's legs. He glanced at her to see she had seen the symbol and was staring at it with a perplexed expression. She turned to him.

"Was someone expecting me?"

"Not to my knowledge. But, then, I didn't build this place."

She glared at the image accusingly. "I hate prophecies and I hate it when people know I'm going to be someplace before I do. I've come very close to being killed multiple times because of that."

"You certainly are pessimistic."

"No, just cynical. It keeps me alive."


	9. Puzzles and Histories

The three continued into the depths, Lara's eyes on the move constantly. They seemed to be walking in a long hallway, and the floor of it seemed to be slowly ascending. Murals decorated the walls, various scenes which triggered something in the back of her mind. On one was a large island floating into a sapphire sea. At the top of its peak, a bit of gold from a hidden pyramid within glinted. The next mural was done in dark and shadowed shades, leaving only the impression of something big. The only bright image was a single glaring green slitted eye. The third had several blue crystals lined up, glinting in the light of a prehistoric sun. The fourth and final one was a simple golden ankh with rubies embedded in it and had ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs across the top. Her eyes narrowed at the last one. These were select images from her previous exploits. Someone had known much about her before even she had.

The hallway suddenly opened up to a small outcropping of five feet, then a huge drop. Leaning over the edge, she couldn't see the bottom. About sixty feet out was another ledge that continued into another tunnel. Kain concentrated a moment, then a ball of glowing multicolored light surrounded his form and he appeared on the other side.

"Cheater!" Lara shouted across.

"Always use what you have available," was the retort. She moved to Raziel's side as he looked around. In the center of the ledge facing the opposite side was a round impression with a smaller hole in which large black and dark violet streamers flowed from. Raziel looked down the ledge to the left to see a basin next to him that also had the dark streamers flowing from its center. He walked over to it and bathed the Reaver in the shadows, imbuing the Reaver for a time with the elemental power of Darkness. He moved back to the circular impression and slid the Reaver into the lock. Dark energies flowed out of the edge of the circle across the gap and connected with a similar design on the other side. He removed the Reaver and started across the shadowy bridge.

Lara stepped cautiously onto the moving shadows to find them quite stable, even to her. She bounced up and down a few times on it to make sure, then dashed across the thing for fear of it disintegrating beneath her. She stopped only when she reached the relative safety of the hall next to Kain and Raziel.

"Why didn't you just fly across?" Lara asked Raziel.

"Because you couldn't, and I don't trust my wings to be strong enough to carry two of us."

"And he just forgot," Kain interjected. Raziel glared at him.

"I did not."

"Yes, you did."

Lara shook her head and walked past them. The two followed after her, occasionally adding a cutting remark, but it seemed to be more in jest than anything else. The hallway suddenly opened up to a small room with incredibly high and smooth walls. There was a rumble behind them and a door slid over the entrance, locking them in. Raziel tried to move it and found it to be stuck solid. The walls were unadorned except for a window up about thirty feet. Raziel couldn't reach it by jumping, and Kain quickly found his powers were suppressed by something in the room.

"Raziel," Kain called to get his attention. "Try shifting to the Spectral Realm. My powers don't work here. I want to see if yours do."

Raziel nodded and closed his eyes in concentration. He brought his arms up, palms facing outward and moved each to the right ninety degrees as if he was trying to move the scenery around him. Other than that, nothing happened. He looked at Kain and shook his head.

"No good. So, how do we get out of here?"

Lara, who had been glancing around the room, called, "Boys?"

"I don't honestly know," Kain responded.

"Boys?"

"Oh, wonderful. He who is Guardian of the Pillar of Balance is at a dead end."

Lara opened her mouth to try to get their attentions again, then shook her head and turned to her work.

"You can't say much, Soul Reaver. You're supposed to be the Savior of Nosgoth. You really can't be such here, now can you?"

"I am _not_ the savior," he growled. "And for your benefit—"

"Raziel?" Kain interrupted.

_"What?!"_

"Where is your concubine?"

"I should leave you in here for that comment," Lara's voice came down to them from above. They both looked up to see the human sitting on the windowsill, the window pushed back and open. She held a coiled rope in hand.

"But since I'm so nice, I won't." She tossed the rope down to them and darted out as they climbed. Outside the window was a fifteen-foot drop that Lara already stood at the bottom of.

"Bring the rope with you, please. And try not to rip it up. It's the only one I have with me."

Raziel quickly coiled it and dropped it down to her. They continued down the next hallway as she walked with a jaunty, self-assured rhythm. Kain and Raziel stared at her in bemusement.

"All right. How did you do it?"

"Not telling," she answered.

"How did you do it?"

"I'm not telling." She paused. "Well, I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you."

She continued on, a smug smile on her face. Kain shook his head.

"Take your pleasure from this, Lara. It won't last long."

"I know. That's why I'm enjoying it. How often does a girl get to show up a master vampire and a Soul Reaver?" She tossed him a grin over her shoulder and continued on.

"Quiet, wench," Kain growled. Lara laughed in reply. She was in too good of a mood to take offense of something as simple as that.

Suddenly, her laughter stopped and she back flipped, pulling out her pistols and landing between Raziel and Kain. They both looked ahead to see what had gotten her attention. A relatively decayed humanoid had emerged from the ground and started backing away.

"What _is_ that thing?" she demanded.

"An undead guardian," Raziel replied. It pulled its head back, then shot it forward, spitting out a ball of green fluid. Lara spun away from it.

_"Ick!"_ she grumbled in disgust. She aimed the pistol toward its head and fired once, watching, pleased, as its head exploded and it crumpled. Behind her, Kain and Raziel exchanged a look before shrugging simultaneously and Raziel pulled down the tabard to devour the soul. Lara gazed at him, then shook her head.

"It's nice to know that I serve the purpose of feeding you."

"Hardly," he responded. "I could feed myself. You just happen to be here and making my hunting easier."

She shook her head, half-amused and half-uncaring, and continued again down the hall. The walls suddenly opened up into a round chamber about forty, fifty feet across with a pillar shooting out of the floor in the center that was about seven to ten feet in diameter. The room was shaped roughly like a hexagon, with the opening for the hallway taking up one face. The rest had a map of what had to be Nosgoth, the second a bookshelf with books placed on it, the third a clock face, the fourth a model of what Lara recognized to be an atom, and the fifth a pair of bastard swords hung crossed over a shield. She stepped forward to read the writing on the pillar.

__

Two hands have I,

Though one may be small

Upon my face,

Both see all

Turn the large three dots right,

The shorter between 10 and 11 cleft

Large again back seven times

There's not much more that's left!

Long two marks to the left

Short goes eight dots right

Screeching, climbing, up they go

Until the top is out of sight.

"Hm." Lara's eyes narrowed as she read out the riddle. "Two hands have I . . ."

"A clock," Kain said from behind her, where he was studying the riddle as well. She turned to look at the clock image on the wall to see it was actually a clock, hands movable and all. She walked over to it and scrutinized it a moment. On each of the clock's hands was a painted eye.

"Upon my face both see all," she murmured. "Read me off the poem again."

Raziel's voice coiled through the air to her ears as he read it again. The corner of her mouth twitched upward as she listened to his voice.

"Read it again, slowly this time. These are directions."

As he read it, she moved the minute hand to the fifteen-minute, or number three, position. She paused on the next direction.

"Cleft?"

"A fissure or a gap," Raziel replied. "I believe in this case it means the point between the two numbers."

She nodded for him to continue and she moved the hour hand to the point between ten and eleven o'clock. The minute hand went counterclockwise seven numbers, landing it at forty minutes. The minute hand was then moved another two points counterclockwise, landing it on thirty minutes. The hour hand moved clockwise eight spaces, landing on six, the same spot the minute hand occupied. Behind her was a loud screeching and high pitched whine. She whirled to watch part of the floor around the pillar buckle and shoot up, forming stairs. It took the entirety of five minutes or so for it to reach the top of the pillar and stop. She looked at Kain and Raziel.

"Up we go?"

The trio headed up the stairs, Lara keeping close to the stone of the pillar. She didn't want to test to see if Raziel's reflexes were fast enough to catch her should she go spilling over the edge. They emerged at the top to see a huge antechamber. They stood on one end and on the other was a pair of huge, double doors with a glowing image at about chest height that radiated off golden streamers. The other three sides were filled with archways that gave a long unbroken view of Nosgoth. It also let them know it was nearly nighttime. Lara yawned suddenly and tried to suppress it before either male noticed. Of course, she didn't have that luck.

"You need to rest," Raziel ordered.

She opened her mouth to argue, then stopped as his eyes flashed dangerously. She shut her mouth and an eyebrow raised.

'The Soul Reaver worried about little old _moí_?' she thought to herself in interest. 'What in hell is going on here?'

Kain had walked to the edge of the floor to look out at his world. He really did have things to do and he needed to feed soon. And now seemed like the perfect time to leave the two alone. They needed to spend some time together, anyway. He turned back to them. Things just needed to be poked the right direction, then left alone. Of course, he'd have to keep a close eye on them, but he'd be back in the morning.

"I'm am going out to feed, and I have a few things to settle. I'll be back in the morning."

"See what I mean, Lara? He doesn't stay around for too long."

Kain grinned, showing his long fangs and enjoying the shudder from the human. "Oh, I'll be back."

"Inevitably," she shot in retort.

He concentrated a moment, then a multicolored light surrounded his form and he disappeared. She narrowed her eyes, then turned back to look at Raziel. An uneasy silence fell between the two.

"So."

"So."

She blinked at him a few times, then started to lean down to build a fire. After a moment of thought, she shook her head and sat down. The moon and stars were bright enough here that she didn't need the light and the breeze that came in through the arches was warm. She looked up at Raziel's glowing eyes.

"Why and what are you doing here?"

He sighed deeply and sat down. "At the moment, entertaining a very strange woman."

"That's not what I mean," she responded. "What have you been involved with in this world? Why are you what you are?"

He reached up and pulled the tabard away from his face and folded it carefully before setting it down nearby. A sad smile touched his lips. He didn't look up at her as he pulled out a small black book entitled, Dark Chronicle. She flipped it open to the first page and watched as images furled into life, moving as if it was some recording of his memories. His powerful voice entered her mind, explaining each scene, each thought . . .

__

Kain is deified. The Clans tell tales of Him. Few know the truth. He was mortal once, as were we all. However, His contempt for humanity drove Him to create me, and my brethren.

I am Raziel, first-born of His lieutenants. I stood with Kain and my brethren at the dawn of the empire. I have served Him a millennium. Over time, we became less human and more . . . divine. Kain would enter the state of change and emerge with a new gift. Some years after the master, our evolution would follow. Until I had the honor of surpassing my lord. For my transgression, I earned a new kind of reward . . . agony.

There was only one possible outcome – my eternal damnation. I, Raziel, was to suffer the fate of traitors and weaklings – to burn forever in the bowels of the Lake of the Dead.

Tumbling, burning with white-hot fire, I plunged into the depths of the abyss. Unspeakable pain . . . relentless agony . . . time ceased to exist. Only this torture, and a deepened hatred of the hypocrisy that damned me to this hell.

An eternity passed and my torment receded, bringing me back from the precipice of madness. The descent had destroyed me, and yet, I lived.

The chronicle continued to account his meeting of the Elder who rescued him from the eternal agony of the Lake of the Dead, then through his training and the destruction of his brethren. She felt his emotions at reuniting with Kain, his former lord and executioner. She beheld the ghostly form of Ariel, advising him and helping him with what she could. She watched as Raziel learned of his heritage: that he was once a Sarafan knight. And she felt his anger and hatred as he faced down Kain once again.

__

"At last. I must say I'm disappointed in your progress. I imagined you would be here sooner. Tell me – did it trouble you to murder your brothers?"

Did it trouble you_ when you ordered me into the Abyss?_

"Eternity is relentless, Raziel. When I first stole into this chamber centuries ago, I did not fathom the true power of knowledge. To know the future, Raziel – to see its paths and streams tracing out into the infinite . . . As a man, I could never have contained such forbidden truths. But each of us is so much more than we once were. Do you not feel with all your soul how we have become like gods? And as such, are we not indivisible? As long as a single one of us stands, we are legion. Our futures are predestined. Moebius foretold mine aeons ago. We each play out the parts fate has written for us. Free will is an illusion."

I found the Tomb of Sarafan, Kain. How could you profane a priest by turning him into a vampire_?_

"How could I not_? One must keep his friends close, Raziel – and his enemies _even closer._ Who better to serve me than those whose passions transcends all notions of good and evil?"_

The Sarafan were saviors, defending Nosgoth from the corruption that we_ represent. My eyes are opened, Kain – I find no nobility in the unlife you rudely forced on my unwilling corpse!_

"You may have uncovered your past, but you know nothing of it. You think the Sarafan were noble, altruistic? Don't be simple. Their agenda was the same as ours.

"You nearly had me, Raziel . . . But this is not where – or how_ – it ends. Fate promises more twists before this drama unfolds completely."_

Lara saw through Raziel's eyes as he met Moebius, the so-called Time-Streamer she had heard of, but never seen. She experienced his battle through the temple, out into the open, his meeting with Kain again:

__

. . . I have pursued you here for one purpose – you will pay for your betrayal, and Balance will be restored to Nosgoth.

"And whose will is satisfied then, the will of Raziel, or Moebius?"

Would I be better manipulated by you, Kain? Now turn and face me; the chase is over.

"This isn't a chase_, Raziel – we are merely passengers on the wheel of destiny, describing a perfect circle to this point. We have been brought here for a reason. I have seen the beginning and the end of our story, however – and the tale is crude and ill-conceived. We must rewrite the ending, you and I."_

Face me, Kain. Even you shouldn't die a coward's death.

"Isn't it customary to grant the condemned a final request?"

I recall no such courtesy from you.

"Indulge me, Raziel. All I ask is that you listen_. This is the sublime moment of our undoing, Raziel – the ineffable fulcrum upon which swings the entirety of our history. This is where all of Nosgoth is betrayed. In this instant, Ariel – the Balance Guardian – is murdered by dark forces bent on overthrowing the Pillars. Her spirit is just now tearing free, lost in the ether, trying to find its way here. You have already seen how she comes to haunt these Pillars—"_

—Bound_ here by your refusal to die. _You _are the reason this land becomes diseased – as long as you remain alive you condemn Nosgoth to an eternity of decay._

"Be still, Raziel. See this._ As Ariel dies, I am being born to take her place as Balance Guardian. Such is my destiny."_

Raziel and Lara both watched the Pillars turn gray, corrupt, and begin to crack, their pristine shine lost to the blackness of betrayal.

__

. . . my god . . .

"At the moment of my first cry, Ariel's beloved – the Guardian Nupraptor – finds her corpse. Wracked with grief and tormented by suspicious of treachery, Nupraptor plunges into a madness which overflows and infects all of the Guardians, who are symbiotically bound.

"Including me.

__

"The repercussions of Ariel's assassination were expertly calculated . . . The entire Circle descends into madness and I am tainted at the moment of my birth – instantly rendered incapable of fulfilling the role destiny has prepared for me."

Shall I show you the same mercy you showed the rest of the Circle, then? You blithely murdered them to restore their Pillars, yet your hand faltered when it came to the final_ sacrifice. What makes you exempt, Kain? You're merely the last man standing. Why condemn me for simply carrying out what you hadn't the courage to do yourself?_

"Let's drop the moral posturing, shall we? We both know there's no altruism in this pursuit. Your reckless indignation led you here – I counted_ on it. There's no _shame _in it, Raziel – revenge is motivation enough. At least it's honest. _Hate_ me, but do it _honestly_._

"Thirty years hence, I am presented with a dilemma – let's call it a two-sided coin. If the coin falls one way, I sacrifice myself and thus restore the Pillars. But as the last surviving vampire in Nosgoth, this would mean the annihilation of our species. Moebius made sure of that. If the coin lands on the reverse, I refuse the sacrifice and thus doom the Pillars to an eternity of collapse. Either way, the game is rigged_."_

We agree then that the Pillars are crucial, and must be restored?

"Yes, Raziel. That's why we've come full-circle to this place."

So after all this you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must_ die so that new Guardians can be born._

"The Pillars don't belong to them_, Raziel . . . they belong to _us_."_

Your arrogance is boundless, Kain.

"There's a THIRD_ option – a monumental secret, hidden in your very presence here. But it's a secret you have to discover yourself. Unearth your destiny, Raziel. It's all laid out for you here."_

You said it yourself, Kain – there are only two side to your coin.

"Apparently so. But suppose you throw a coin enough times . . . suppose one day, it lands on its edge_."_

She watched Raziel met again with the Elder, and then encounter the vampire Vorador for the first time. She felt the pull of history as he denied the fate to kill Kain, and instead, spared him. He forced Moebius to work his time-streaming device, but Moebius pulled out one last ace and propelled Raziel into the future. He met up with Ariel and the Elder again, and found the ruined aerie that once housed Janos Audron. She followed silently as he made his way back in time, met Janos, and saw his death. She felt the anger, hatred and burning rage that filled Raziel as he made his way to the Sarafan temple to get Janos' heart back. The sense of betrayal as he found out Moebius' position in it all, and his destruction of his brethren again, this time as humans. And when it was all over, the Reaver, now conjoined in its ethereal form and its physical form, turned its hunger on him and impaled him, devouring his soul.

**__**

(WARNING: SR2 SPOILER!!!! AS IN THE ENTIRETY OF THE SOUL REAVER'S SECRET!!!)

__

The Reaver was never forged to be a soul_-stealing weapon . . . the ravenous, soul-devouring entity trapped in the blade was – and always had been _**ME**_. _This_ is why the blade was destroyed when Kain tried to strike me down – _the Reaver could not devour its **own soul.**_ The paradox shattered the blade._

She felt the pain, and felt Raziel's sense of betrayal as Kain suddenly showed himself. He urged Raziel to give into the feeling, and soon Raziel just could not hold out against the Reaver's power anymore. It was too powerful . . .

__

. . . And then . . . a growing sense of vertigo, and the familiar displacement_ . . . the paradoxical moment when my twinned soul hovered both _outside_ and _inside_ the Reaver blade . . . _This_ was the instant – the glimmer of temporal distortion – Kain had been counting on all along. This was the _edge of the coin_ – the minute flicker of probability upon which he had gambled _everything_._

Kain had lunged forward and pulled the Reaver out of Raziel, saving him and reshuffling their future. But something had gone wrong. They had shifted it too far, and Kain's eyes were filled with a horror of what the price had been to save Raziel. Making a cryptic comment about walking into the trap of the Hylden, he grabbed Raziel and told him Janos must stay dead . . .

__

But Kain's warning was lost as I slipped into the spirit realm, too weak to maintain my physical form . . . And there, waiting for me as always, was the Reaver_ – the wraith blade . . . my own soul, twinned and bound eternally to me. And I realized that I could never escape my terrible destiny . . . I had merely _postponed _it._

****

HISTORY ABHORS A PARADOX.

Lara closed the book slowly and reached up, surprised to find a tear sneaking down her cheek.

"My god," she whispered quietly. "Raziel, I . . ." She trailed off, unsure what to say. What could one say to someone whose fate had been chosen that he was doomed to die no matter what?

"Do not pity me," he growled, and she saw that he did not look up at her as he said it. She moved over to him and placed a hand against his cheek, forcing him to look up at her.

"I do not pity you. But you do have my sympathy."

His claw slid up and curled around hers. To her surprise, his skin was warm. She found herself halfway leaning down toward him, halfway being pulled as he drew her by his grip on her hand. His lips gently met hers, a barest touching of lips. When she didn't protest or didn't pull back, he added pressure, intensifying the connection. Her other hand went to the side of his face as his claws curved around to the back of her head to hold her against him. Their lips pressed in toward one another, a meeting and melting of flesh into the depths of ecstasy. One of his claws slid down her body to wrap around her waist and pulled her close against him. Her arms quickly shifted and moved around his body, gripping him against her.

They maintained the burning kiss for an indefinite amount of time until Lara pulled back slightly, not enough to move away, but enough to see his face. He wouldn't let her go, anyway. The two just looked at each other for a long while.

"Raziel, tell me something."

"Yes?"

"How long has this uncomfortable awkwardness been between us?"

"I honestly don't know," he responded truthfully.

"But Kain did, didn't he?"

He sighed. "I would assume so. He's not happy unless he's meddling in something. It seems to be his life-long goal. It would also explain why he's stayed around so long."

"Or maybe it was just necessary," she retorted. The two fell silent again, then moved toward one another.

"Raziel . . ."

"I know." His voice was soft and she could feel the breath of his words slide across her skin, causing her to shiver in desire.

"But . . . I can't . . . It's—"

"Lara, Lara, Lara," he interrupted softly, shaking his head. "You worry too much. Just go with it. Nothing will come of it. Think of it as one night that's a gift in a normal woman's life."

"My life is anything but normal," she managed out around his lips before giving into him.


	10. Love and Pleasure

**__**

(WARNING: for those who don't like described sexual situations, please skip to the next chapter. All this is is a sex scene.)

His claws slid up under her shirt, running across the skin and leaving a burning trail of desire. Twisting her body slightly, he leaned her back very gently. She felt the cold stone on her back as she found herself looking up into Raziel's glowing eyes, his weight resting comfortably on her. He leaned down and met her lips with his. She felt the desire intensify and double as his claw slid under her shirt, caressing her breasts. She barely restrained a gasp around his lips. No human hand, no human lover could ever equal this and she knew it. Her mind quickly flashed on stories of a fey king who sometimes took mortal women lovers who would never be sated by a normal mortal man's touch again. Just as quickly, the thought was shoved away as he pulled at her shirt. She grabbed the hem and pulled it over her head. He regarded the bra she was wearing with mild interest (interest only in the fact it stood in the way), before he felt for the clip in the back. After a moment of annoyance, he simply snapped it with his claws. She could bitch at him later for it, if she liked. He could quiet her quickly enough.

She twisted her hips, using his weight as leverage and moved him onto his back, her straddling his hips. She tugged at the offending pants he wore and he obliged her. The need she felt rested as strongly in his heart and soul as well, and she had to help him pull her shorts off. It wasn't so much she didn't think he couldn't handle it; it was more that she wanted them to remain in one piece. The last bit of cloth was removed, and Lara looked down at him, meeting his gaze. She leaned down and kissed him gently as she moved slightly to be move comfortable. With a sigh of pleasure released, he moved into her as she swallowed another noise of pleasure. She moved her hips slightly, introducing the beginning motions and enticing him with the scent of her skin and desire for her. His claws tenderly slid around her waist, adding the strength of his arms to her movements. She leaned down and met his lips with another kiss, and then felt gravity move around her as she found her back again against the cold stone. It was a pleasurable surprise, and she certainly wasn't going to complain. Every muscle of his that worked was met with a response in her body, and she gladly accepted the length of him inside of her. Her arms snaked around his back, careful not to press against the wings, as her legs curled around him, squeezing tightly as he thrust into her, pulling his body even tighter against hers. They enwrapped their bodies so strongly against one another that the only way they could get any closer would be to meld bodies.

Raziel kissed down the side of her face to her neck and she felt the brush of fangs against her skin. Her breath caught as she waited to see if he would bite into her neck. Her breath was released as his lips continued down to her breasts, then back up the other side of her neck to her lips again. Their motions reached a faster, rhythmic pulse. Her body ached with desire and the need for release. On some subconscious level, he received that need, that feeling and gladly answered it. Their movements reached a frantic level before the orgasm exploded with the intensity of a nova with an immense wave of pleasure. Lara's head tilted back in a silent scream of ecstasy and she felt Raziel lightly bite her neck, not enough to do any damage, but enough to feel like a pinprick. It seemed thousands of years of instincts could not be changed that easily.

With a relieved sigh, Raziel gratefully sank down against her as she curled around him. There wasn't a better situation that she could come up with for a once-in-a-lifetime thing other than what had just happened. For once in her life, she was content, and she could stay here forever.

Eventually, Raziel rolled over and Lara curled up against him, using his chest as a pillow. It only mildly disturbed her that her lover's heart did not beat and that his chest did not move. After a moment of consideration, she shoved the thought away, not caring. She let her fingers trail down his chest, resting in a golden cloud of happiness and contentment. He caught her fingers and brought them up to his lips, kissing them gently. His kisses spread down her arm, up across her shoulder and neck, and up to her lips. His arm slipped around her, pulling her against his body. She could feel him against her, feel the need he still felt for her. She wrapped her legs around him as he rolled onto his back. His claws caressed her sides gently.

"Haven't you had enough?" she demanded, fighting a smile.

He shook his head, a mischievous smile on his lips. "Have you?"

She just laughed as she leaned down to kiss him.


	11. A Human in the Spectral Realm

Lara woke slowly, the light of the sun glinting down in her face. She yawned and blinked, surprised to see stone above her. She must be in a tomb, but where? India again? Or South America? It wasn't until she sat up and found she wasn't wearing anything and she saw Raziel that everything came crashing back to her. Including last night.

'Damn,' she thought, yawning. 'He is an incredibly good lover.'

"Good morning, Lara," Raziel greeted her.

"Good morning," she responded. She stood and inspected the damage to her clothes from last night.

"Not modest, are you?"

"You've seen me not wearing anything. It's not really a big deal. Besides, I wouldn't think _you'd_ be complaining."

"Oh, I'm not," he hastily amended. "Just stating a fact."

She grinned and pulled on her shorts, then frowned at the bra. It was gone beyond the point of no return. Raziel's claw marks were evident at the clasp. Men. They had no patience. She dug through her bag until she found her spare, snapped it on in the back, and turned to see Raziel staring interestedly at it.

"Hm."

"Studying it in order to learn how to get it off better?"

He shook his head. "Just seeing if the other way was easier. It's not. I like my way better."

Lara laughed as she pulled on her top. She felt arms snake around her waist and turned to look up into Raziel's face. He hadn't yet put the tabard back on. She smiled up at him, then mentally thwapped herself.

'A fling,' she reminded herself. 'A one-night fling. I don't care for him. Get over it.'

Her thoughts were interjected as he leaned down and kissed her. The kiss was everything the body promised: powerful, strong, stable, and exotic. She tried to stop from giving into him as much as she did, but her willpower just wasn't up to Raziel. In fact, as far as Lara was concerned, when he kissed her, she didn't know what the word 'willpower' meant.

"Did I miss something?" a voice interrupted them. Both turned to gaze at Kain who was calmly leaning against one of the pillars.

"Oh goody," Lara grumbled sarcastically. "You're back."

"Hm. Most people don't like the fact I'm back. They try to get rid of me as soon as possible."—Lara's eye twitched—"Now, what did happen?"

Lara turned to packing as Raziel moved to look at the new obstacle blocking their path. Kain looked between them and hid a grin. Oh, good. Things were going better than planned. His smile faded, though, as he watched the two's actions.

'Well, they apparently decided that it wasn't anything serious. She's not going to be staying. Pity. They would have made an interesting couple.' A corner of his mouth twitched upward. 'And she would have made an interesting vampire. Oh well. Her loss.'

Raziel studied the door and a grimace touched his lips. Another door that needed a specific type of Reaver to unlock. This one needed the Light Reaver. He glanced around. He didn't see any Light forges, and he hadn't noticed any on the way in. He guessed that he was going to have to slip into the Spectral Realm to find out what was going on. Not saying anything to his companions, he moved into the spirit realm and glanced around. As was usual, the basic scenery was the same (short of having a blue tint to everything), but there were a few things different. For one, the wall a few feet of the door buckled upward, revealing a passageway. He quickly dispatched an overly curious Sluagh and continued into the end of the hallway which ended up being a large room. He returned to the normal realm and stepped forward to examine the wall. It looked relatively like a door set into the stone, the hinges hidden just like the first door that had stopped them from entering the building. Etched in the door was a triangle placed upon an intricately designed circle. In the center of the triangle was an eye. Where the pupil would be was a circular hole with little metal pieces that stuck out at odd angles inside it. Raziel stepped up to it and gazed down at it. It kind of looked like the inside of a lock. He glanced at his three-clawed hands and shook his head slightly. His fingers were not nimble enough for this kind of thing. He slipped back into the Spectral Realm and headed back to the others.

"Lara, I'm going to need you for a moment."

Lara nodded and stepped over to him. "What do you need? And where is this that you need my help?"

Inwardly, Raziel smiled. He set a hand on her shoulder and slipped back into the spirit realm, bringing Lara with him.

"Good God!" Lara cried, instinctively grabbing onto his claw in surprise. Looking around at the blue tinged world around her, Lara decided she was never going to let him do that again.

"You ass!" She pulled back and punched him in the shoulder. He didn't even seem to notice. A curious Sluagh popped out from the hallway that Lara could have sworn wasn't there in the normal realm. The green creature stood bipedal, again with two toed feet and three clawed hands. Its beady yellow-green eyes saw the form of Lara and the life and energy her soul promised. Lara, on the other hand, didn't like the thing coming slowly toward her. It had that "I'm hungry, let me eat you" look. She knew that look. She had been given it plenty of times. She reached for her pistol and shot the thing. To her surprise, the bullet left the gun with a muffled explosion and almost instantly seemed like it hit resistance and began to slow immensely. She watched in amazement as the bullet slowed and finally stopped only a few feet from her. The Sluagh started running toward her.

"Bugger."

Raziel moved in front of her, brandishing the Soul Reaver. The spirit eater moved back hastily, not liking the situation. It started to circle the two. It sensed the presence of a living soul, but this soul wraith that wielded a strange weapon was keeping it from that soul. It shot forward to attack the competition. As one, Lara shot once more and Raziel moved to a guard position. Again, the bullet slowed and moved through the Sluagh as if it wasn't there. It didn't appear on the other side, having slowed to a stop inside of where the Sluagh's body should have been. If the creature had been capable of complex emotions, it would have been pleased. The living soul's weapons were not effective against it. Soon it would have its meal.

It pulled back to lunge forward again, but found a shocking problem; it couldn't move. Lara raised an eyebrow and Raziel eyed the thing warily. Then Lara smirked.

"This is the . . . Spectral Realm as you called it earlier before, right?"

"Correct."

"And you also said that this realm lies next to and intersects our own. Which means some things effect this realm and some do not. I would surmise, then, that the bullets were slowed because they are still on the normal plane of existence, but still retained a connection here because they were fired here. As such, anything that had a bullet in it would be trapped in one spot because the bullet cannot be manipulated here."

Raziel looked down at Lara, an eyebrow raised. "You keep turning around and surprising me, human."

"Like to keep you on your toes. Now, may I see what it is that you brought me here to?"

He led her into the other room and took her back to the normal realm. Lara gazed at the triangle etched into the stone for a long moment before breathing, "The All-Seeing Eye." She moved up to the pupil and looked in.

"A lock? Hm . . ." She reached in and carefully slid the inside metal pieces around, wary of setting off any traps. Her efforts were finally rewarded with a satisfying CLICK as the door unlocked and slid back and to the side. Inside was a small room with only two things of note: a basin that streamed a ray of bright yellow out of the top, and a boulder that Lara recognized could be moved. Raziel moved up to the basin and bathed the Reaver in the light, imbuing it with the elemental power of Light. Lara headed over to the block and started to push it out. She strained her weight against it and the block moved a millimeter. She pushed again and it stuck solid.

"Uh, Raziel? A little help, please?"

"Lara, do you remember when you first met me?" he inquired, ignoring her request. She sighed, dropped her hands, and turned to look at him.

"Yes. Why?"

"Do you remember the mural you said was cute?"

" . . ." She fidgeted slightly. "Yes, I remember. And I know who it was now."

Raziel smirked partially. "Do you really find me cute?"

Lara looked up at him and gave him a singsong 'I'm not gonna tell you' look. He chuckled softly. He stepped over to where she was standing and slammed his claws into the block. He shoved it out and to the side while Lara glowered at him.

"You're still a show-off."

Raziel pulled the tabard down and smirked at her.


	12. A Trinket After all This Work!

Lara hopped out of the hole, preceding Raziel. She dropped out of the wall about fifteen feet from the main door they had left behind only a few minutes before. Kain stood, leaning against a pillar, tapping his foot slowly.

"Tell me, Raziel, why did I come here to help you? It seems this place was made for you and Lara alone."

"Something you hadn't foreseen?" Raziel shot venomously.

"You know, Raziel, I find you more tolerable after you have just engaged in sex. You take much less . . . offense from the world when you have been physically satisfied."

Before Raziel could retort and ignite a battle of wits between the two, Lara interceded by shoving him toward the door.

"We have lots to do and less time to do it in. Open the bloody door before you get shoved into the Spectral Realm again."

With a slight sigh (Raziel swore he would never understand women), he slid the Reaver into the lock and watched as the door slid open. Behind it was a large, long hallway. On the inside of the door to the left was another fount, this one having a wisp of gray-white multicolored energy. Raziel walked over to it and bathed it in the energy, imbuing the Reaver for a time with the elemental power of Air.

"Why'd you change it?" Lara asked curiously.

"It will most likely come in handy. These founts seem to always be strategically placed for my purposes."

Lara shrugged slightly before looking down the hallway. It continued in regal elegance for near a half mile, the columns melding into arcs over forty feet high. She slid her pistols out of their holsters and headed in, glancing left and right at the intricate architecture. When they got to a point of the hall that had mosaics of the wielder of the Reaver, Kain groaned.

"You too are on your own for now. I have many things to do more important than this. I'll find you after you get out."

He concentrated a moment, then disappeared out of existence. Lara looked to Raziel.

"Abandoned again."

"So it seems. Believe me, Lara, it is for the better."

They continued down the hall until a few of the undead guardians rose from the ground in front of them. Lara sighed, but stepped back and watched in amusement as Raziel dispatched the three with ease born of practice.

"How often have you run into these things?"

"Far too many to count. By this point they're only a minor annoyance compared to the task at hand."

"Yes, we're dealing with a major annoyance: the running around solving stupid and pointless puzzles annoyance. I don't know who would ever really bother with such a life."

Everything went dead silent as the two stared at each other. Lara looked around, shrugged, and indicated forward.

"Onward?"

"And upward," Raziel responded, indicating the rising path they were standing on.

Lara fell into step beside Raziel and kept pace with him as he headed down the hall. The walls became a light brown of unworked stone, no designs of paintings of any kind on them. As they traveled, the hours slowly passed. The path kept sloping upward, and it got progressively more and more cool. When Lara could see her breath in the air, she stopped Raziel long enough to pull on a coat from her backpack. About half an hour later, she stopped him again to pull out a pair of thick winter pants to cover her legs, as the temperature had only continued to drop.

"Too bad," Raziel murmured, watching her pull on the pants. "I won't get to look at those shapely legs of yours anymore." Lara smirked at him.

"I have a feeling you'll soon be doing too much fighting to really be paying attention to how much you miss my legs, Raziel."

The two continued on, and the path suddenly twisted steeply. Around the turn, they found themselves looking at a fork in the path, both ways being blocked off by a thin layer of ice.

"Boy, this brings back memories," Lara mumbled to herself. Raziel gently placed a claw on her hip and moved her behind him before summoning the Soul Reaver and aiming it toward the blockage.

"Left or right?"

"Right," Lara responded immediately.

Raziel charged up a single Reaver bolt and released it, watching in satisfaction as the ice shattered, revealing behind it a small room with only another basin in it.

"Hm. Guess it's not that one," Raziel commented blandly. He took aim at the other sheet of ice and smashed it, much more pleased to see another pathway behind the second. He easily walked toward the basin, leaving Lara looking in curiosity at the other pathway and inspected what Reaver basin it was. He was most amused to feel the warmth of a fire basin as soon as he drew near. He bathed the Reaver in its flames and headed back to Lara, not bothering to un-summon it. As soon as Lara's eyes fell on the ethereal burning blade, she quickly jogged over to him and hugged him abruptly. He looked down at her and noticed she had her hands held out toward the Reaver. Smirking to himself, Raziel left the Reaver drift back into the Spectral Realm, dismissing it from the physical one.

"Ooh," Lara groaned. "It was warm."

"You will live," he responded in good humor. Then the humor died as he added dead seriously, "I will make sure of it."

Before Lara could ask any questions, Raziel walked down the path, not glancing back at her. She blinked a few times, gritted her teeth, and followed after him. The walls were now a blue-white from the ice and Lara could see her breath form in clouds of ice particles before her mouth. She almost wondered if they had appeared in Antarctica. The only thing keeping her from thinking she was on Earth was her blue-skinned companion who walked a few feet in front of her, giving her ample view of his backside.

'This . . .' Lara thought to herself, noting her eyes' travels across his body, 'is not helping.' She moved up quickly to walk next to him and viscously suppressed the desire to drop back again. She suddenly decided it might be a better idea to do so when five undead guardians appeared from the ground. These ones didn't look like the ones they had run into earlier. These ones were seven, maybe eight feet tall, looked like they were wearing funeral death masks, and wielded wicked-looking scimitars. Raziel snarled slightly as the Reaver sprang willfully into appearance. Hearing a sound behind her, Lara glanced around cautiously to see about seven more of the guardians converging on them.

"Raziel? We happen to have a minor problem."

He glanced around and saw what she meant. In response, he readied the Reaver and jerked his head toward her pistols. She nodded, not caring if he could or could not see it. She knew what they were going to do.

Unexpectedly, two of the undead inexplicably imploded. A third went down after being hit by a lightning bolt. Raziel had taken their distraction to his advantage and had swung in with the Reaver, quickly dispatching another guardian, even as the Reaver began to grow in light and power. Lara emptied a clip into one, and didn't pause to watch it fall as she snapped in another clip and continued working on the next one. That left only six more to go. Raziel destroyed two more, and the ninth followed the first ones' paths and imploded. Lara finished off another two and watched Raziel kill the last. The Reaver was now glowing at full power and he wavered, trying to suppress its bloodlust. He had pushed it to the max. Any closer and the Reaver would be feeding off him right now. Raziel pulled his tabard down and swallowed the souls from Lara's kills, mentally thanking her for not having a soul-stealing weapon. Then he turned to look to see who had helped them.

Sitting up on an icy ledge not more than twenty feet from them was a bored-looking Kain.

"I remembered why it was I was keeping track of you," he deadpanned. "You two both have a rather amazing ability to get in trouble if you aren't watched."

"We were doing quite all right for ourselves, Kain," Raziel shot back venomously. Kain sighed.

"You were, Raziel, but that situation might have proved more than our little mortal to handle, and, annoying as she is, she is important somehow to our problem and I want her to stay alive. I would much rather have to stick my neck out and offer her a hand than lose her currently." He glanced at Lara. "Keep in mind, Lara, this is not giving you unlimited patience with me. Once you prove to be too much trouble or are not of any use to us anymore, I will have no qualms about killing you."

There was a distinctive CLICK in the hall as Lara cocked her pistols. "It's so nice we understand one another. The feeling is mutual, Kain, believe me."

"I think I'm beginning to understand how you feel when Kain and I fight," Raziel commented to Lara quietly.

Kain dropped down from his spot and began to walk down the path, not waiting for the two to catch up. Raziel stepped after him and Lara fell into step beside him. As the halls narrowed down, Lara found an excuse to fall back behind him and watched the muscles under the skin of his back move appreciatively. He suddenly stopped as Kain came to a halt before him. Before them was a large set of double doors with a lock on it similar to the one for the Reaver. However, this one was crafted into the image of a three clawed hand. Above it was an image of a winged creature with horns. Lara recognized the symbol with the one on the cloth that was draped over Kain's shoulder. He studied the image dubiously.

"Apparently it was a wise choice for me to return to watching over you two."

He touched the symbol and watched as the doors opened. Inside was a large chamber with a single mural painted over its spherical wall. The mural was of two planets as a shot from space. Lara recognized one as Earth, but didn't know the other.

"What is this planet?" she inquired, pointing to the one on the right.

"That is Nosgoth," Raziel informed her as he moved next to her. "Do you know what planet the other is?"

"Earth," Lara supplied. "My home."

On each planet was an image that looked like the Pillars. The one on Nosgoth lay to the southwest. The ones on Earth lay to the northeast, surprisingly enough, in what looked like England. A crystal blue strand of what looked like energy arced from Nosgoth to Earth.

"Someone knew this was going to happen long before it did," Lara commented quietly to herself. All three looked to the only other thing in the room, a pedestal which stood relatively between the two planets. Upon the gray stone lay one object; an almost cylindrical shape that Lara recognized immediately as a single bullet.

"How unrewarding. We came all this way for this little trinket?" Lara asked disgustedly. "I suppose it's a little piece to a large puzzle as usual."

"Do not doubt the power of anything that rests in the Ancient's warrens," Raziel chided her calmly.

"Do not put too much faith in them, either," Kain added.

"Thank you for the help, boys, but I believe I will take it. Now, I assume we need to get back to the fortress, correct?"

Raziel nodded and Kain put a hand on both their shoulders and concentrated a moment. A light multi-colored mist surrounded them, then cleared to reveal they were standing in the fortress' clearing. Lara blinked a few times.

"Why didn't you just teleport us into the chamber?"

"Because I didn't know where I was going," Kain responded calmly. "I could have teleported us into the rock wall for all I knew. Were you willing to take that chance?"

Lara ignored him and slipped the bullet they had gotten from the cavern into her pistol. "Aim for the crystal?" When she didn't hear anything in reference to a 'no,' she took careful aim. No use in losing their one chance because of an itchy trigger finger. When she was sure of the aim, she fired once and watched in surprise as the crystal blew up with a huge explosion and an almost shock wave reaction. Lara almost wavered on her feet and demanded, "What was that?"

"Good question," Raziel responded. "I don't know whether that was the crystal shattering, the bullet's power, or a mixture of both."

The gate swung open, almost seeming to wait for them.

"Into the depths of hell," Lara murmured to herself.

"You have no idea how close to the truth you are," Kain responded.


	13. Gems and Forgotten Enemies

They paced into the fortress, keeping their eyes open for any Sarafan warriors. Strangely enough, like the clearing around the front, it was suspiciously devoid of life.

"Where is everyone?" Lara asked in a low whisper. Neither man answered her, they themselves not knowing and refusing to admit it. The only life they ran into were a few rats and bats, both of which turned tail and/or wing and fled at their approach. After a long hour of silence, their traveling finally paid off in what must have been Moebius' study. The place looked like it had been left in a hurry, books and papers scattered and odds and ends sitting on a desk. Tacked to the wall near the desk were a few pieces of paper. Lara glanced at them with mild interest. One indicated the dimensions and powers of the snake staff he always carried with him. On the desk itself were random odds and ends, papers with brief scribblings and one large almost ruby-colored gemstone about as large as Lara's heart. Kain stepped over to her and picked it up. The ruby flared bright red and he released it in surprise as it began to float on its own accord, flashing on and off. The red light condescended into a mist and solidified into the ghostly image of a man with a skeleton face and a hood.

"It is he who damned this world," the ghostly being intoned mournfully, a mixture of sadly accepting the fate and cursing the one who did it.

"Mortanius," Kain hissed to himself, recognizing the former Pillar Guardian of the Pillar of Death.

"Why do you disturb us even in death, destroyer of worlds?"

In an easy movement, Raziel slid forward to stand between Lara and Kain, the Reaver rippling into existence. Mortanius drew away from him, as if repulsed.

"The true Guardian of the Pillars . . ." the ghost whispered almost to himself. Then, as if accepting what fate had tossed him, he turned at last to Lara.

"What happened to you?" Lara asked curiously. Sorrow rippled through the ghost.

"The Pillars were betrayed," he sighed in reply. "One of our own was murdered."

"Ariel," Kain supplied. The ghost of Mortanius nodded in affirmation.

"I was held helpless in my own body, thrall and possessed by the Unspeakable One. And Moebius helped him do it."

"What can he possibly profit from this?" Lara inquired. The spirit seemed to shrug.

"Power, eternal life, the chance to rewrite history so Kain does not kill him, who knows? All we know is he betrayed the Inner Circle. When Kain killed each of us to try to restore the Pillars, Moebius was there, and he captured each of our souls, entrapping them in this gem. For what purpose, I know not."

Lara carefully took the gem out of the air, looking into its depths. Inside she could see other spirits swirling in its depths, and could not piece out who was what. She continued looking in as she asked, "You are bound here?"

"Yes. We cannot leave this world while we reside within this gemstone."

"What would it take to break it?"

"You need only flaw the gem somehow."

Lara looked up to see if either of the men had been listening in on the exchange. She saw Kain had already began shuffling through the items in the room to try to find something that he could use. Raziel had apparently disappeared to do the same. After but a moment, he came back, carrying a simple sword which he handed to Kain. Kain walked to where Lara stood and she looked back at the ruby.

"It seems you will be able to continue onto the next world, Mortanius."

"And who, child, might you be?"

"I am Lara Croft."

"And you, Lara Croft, will be fighting Moebius, will you not?"

"I will be."

"Then take this." The gem began to glow again and lifted out of her hands to hover a few centimeters above them. The mist again coalesced into a solid shape in her hands. Looking down, she saw a single magazine made for her pistols. She looked back up at the ghost.

"It is a collection of those unique items you used to get into the fortress."

Lara nodded once in acceptance as the gem settled down onto the floor. Kain stepped over to it, hefting the sword, checking its weight and balance. He grimaced, but swung the sword once, then brought it down on the gemstone. There was a slight ripple in the air and a muffled explosion as the gem shattered under the weight of the blade. It almost seemed to Lara that she could feel a cold breeze wrap around her body heading away, then it was gone. Around the sword was the ruby light, still glowing as brightly as it did when the ruby was in one piece. It seemed to focus on the sword, then die out, leaving the sword a dull blood red instead of the steel gray it had been. Kain rang his claws down the blade, eyeing it curiously.

"It seems that in shattering the ruby, the power of the gem was transferred to the sword. This will be a useful weapon."

Lara blinked slightly. "It will hold souls just as the gem did?"

"Yes. It is actually a far better tool than the gem, as well. With a gemstone, one has to focus to _push_ the soul into it. Once this sword gives the killing blow, the soul will be pulled into it. Think of it as a lesser version of the Soul Reaver."

Raziel glanced around the desolate study. "Is there really anything else for us to do here? We still don't know where Moebius is."

"On the contrary," Lara replied, looking down at a sheet of paper, "I think we do." She held up a paper with an image of the Pillars and a path leading off to the right into the woodlands to a small broken temple. "He's waiting for us."

"Then by all means," Kain commented, "let us go to him." He took Lara's arm and touched Raziel's shoulder, teleporting them to the Pillars. Lara blinked at him a moment.

"You would have been so much help on my earlier quests."

"That I would have," he responded. "I probably would have gotten the job done in half the time and kept you out of most of the trouble you found yourself in."

The trio stepped cautiously and quietly toward the path. Ariel appeared in the air near them.

"Beware," she warned. "Moebius awaits on your path, along with one other whom I'm sure you would rather not see again, Kain." Before she could be asked any questions, she disappeared. Lara slipped her pistols out of their holster and Raziel let the Reaver materialize in the physical world. Kain hefted the sword and grimaced slightly. The three carefully made their way down the path toward the temple. At last, Lara sighed in exasperation.

"They know we're coming. What are we waiting for?!" Without waiting for an answer, she started jogging down the path, away from them.

"And again our human compatriot illustrates her lack of foresight," Raziel mumbled.

"On the contrary, Raziel," Kain responded, "she does have a point." The two men headed after her only to find her standing at a turn in the path, blinking in confusion and what looked like a touch of annoyance. Kain and Raziel flanked her only to see a large clearing with a temple set behind it. In that clearing was one figure familiar to all three; that of Moebius. However, only Kain recognized the second, as it was a towering demon that seemed to be as black as sheer nothingness.

"A man's past continually comes back to haunt him, it seems," Kain breathed. The demon turned red eyes on him. The thing seemed to smirk cruelly.

"Play on, little vampire, play on . . ." it hissed in an echoing voice.

"Hash'ak'gik."

Moebius stepped forward, the crystal on his staff flaring. She felt Kain stiffen beside her and Raziel curse. He chuckled softly.

"And as predicted, they show up on time. Just not quite as we would have expected, eh?"

Hash'ak'gik rumbled agreement from behind him.

"You were never supposed to live through the Sarafan army, but I knew you would somehow. But you were never supposed to find a way into my fortress." The smirk was gone as he glared at the three. "You weren't supposed to find that old temple in the mountains. You were _supposed_ to come straight back here, not find the SOUL GEM!" The staff's light had been growing increasingly brighter as the Time Streamer grew angry. Lara found herself gazing at a man who looked somewhere between eighty and dead, with an infinity symbol down his forehead on the bridge of his nose. She felt an eyebrow rise. _THIS_ was the infamous Time Streamer? She suppressed a chuckle, knowing looks could be deceiving. As if sensing her change in emotions, the Time Streamer looked down on her darkly.

"And _you_ were most definitely not supposed to be here." A slight smirk cursed his lip as he regained his composure. "Tell me, little Tomb Raider, Kain and I have had to plan and plot for thousands of years to use Raziel like the 'edge of the coin,' for all intense purposes, to use him to create a paradox and change the course of time. Yet ever since you have been here, you have caused him to land on his 'edge' time and time again, without any planning and with no repercussions! How?!"

Lara blinked at him a moment, tilted her head to the side, and responded in question, "Feminine wiles?"

With a resounded curse, Moebius turned and stormed slightly away, obviously not getting the answer he wished. Lara leaned over to Kain and murmured, "The staff is a pain, isn't it?" She was given a silent nod in answer. As Moebius moved toward Hash'ak'gik, there was a sudden explosion, and his staff was sent flying out of his grip toward the far side of the temple. He spun to see Lara holding out one of the odd weapons of hers. She shrugged slightly.

"Itchy trigger finger," was all she said. Then the Unspoken struck down to try and snap her into its mouth. She darted further into the clearing to avoid the sharp teeth and Raziel and Kain immediately made a break to get to Moebius. The Time Streamer smiled cruelly as a translucent energy field surrounded his form. In the forest, the shrieks of what gave the impression of a multitude of demons sounded. The fight had begun.


	14. An Intermission!

Yeah! It's an annoying intermission chapter! In other words, I have a few things I'd like to comment. One: the fabulous, wonderful story is done with the help of my muse, Zargreus. He happens to be on this site and under his name is a story we both wrote called Demons and Dragons. It's original fiction, but really, really good! You could, I don't know, go and read it and review? Please? *poke, poke* Please? It's long but good!

The other thing I'd like to address is answering some reviews. Some people have asked questions or made comments on the story, and I know I love it when authors give me responses back. So if you've commented, look for your name in bold, otherwise, you can skip this boring chapter and move onto the next.

However, if you do read, you get to see and experience some of the _genius_ behind the story (or maybe the insanity . . .). But I make a few comments about my own opinions of the story and its characters, if you're interested. You get to see what goes on in the head of the author as she types this crazy thing. And yes, for those of you who didn't know or couldn't guess, I am a she.

First off, to **brainfear**- thank you very much. I tried to make it entertaining.

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LASP- glad I made another Soul Reaver fan.

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Jimbo Jones- I obviously have, and it's not quite over just yet. *grin*

To **Kazumitsu**,** Jave Harron,** and **brainfear** again-Thank you, and my fingers only move so quickly over the keyboard. (Plus, I'm lazy. ;-P)

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Anna Hendrixson- Happy to meet someone who likes both games as well.

Of course, who can forget **Ali**? Thank you for your constant attention to my stories and the flow of compliments. I love them, really I do. J 

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Mish L, **super nova**, and **AmuseMe**- I can only write so fast! Do you get the feeling I get asked to post more soon a lot? *impish grin*

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Syvia- I am having fun reading your self-insertion fics and the stories you write with Anamae. Wish I could review them, but my bloody computer refuses to let me review, and neither of you have a working email address I can find.

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Areai Moonlight- I like the pairing, too. Really, Raziel could only settle down with a woman as dominant and as outdoorsy as he, and Lara would not be able to stand most normal humans. It was a fun relationship to work with.

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Kittie, **Honlei of the Inferno**, **TaleSpinner**, and **silmir**- Thank you, thank you, thank you, and the story has continued much further since that point.

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The Dark Reaver- Ahhh, yes. Thank you for the compliment, the story's almost finished, and I hope that comment about Raziel was a joke. I did purposely leave the impression he liked her. But either way, I love know that people pick up on my subtle hints.

Raziel: Subtle?

Shut-up.

And to **The Impure Hedgehog**- ummmmmmmmmmmmmm. . . **_WHY are you chasing Kain with a chainsaw?!!!??!_**

Bloodthirsty- Glad you like it. And for all you Kain girl fans out there, YES THERE WILL BE A POINT WHERE THEY'LL PLAY STRIP POKER! Sorry about the typos. They're probably my fault. I start typing and don't stop to really look at _what_ I'm typing.

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AmuseMe- All I have to say is why would I want Zephon as my slave for eternity? Last I checked, you got him, too.

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Angelofdarkness- I tried to include as much detail into the story as I could so those who hadn't played Soul Reaver could follow along, while also balancing out trying not to put TOO much in, which would bore all those I had. Apparently I succeeded, so thank you for informing me.

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SS4 Trunks, **Kittie**¸ and **SpitefulHope**- Another round of thank yous. And I'm glad you liked the scene between the two, **Spite**.

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Eternal Damnation- ………… *anime sweatdrop* I assume you liked the pairing ……

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USA Tiger and **VladimirsAngel**- Thank yous never end, so instead I'll say…. Squiggle bottom.

LOK cast: *sweatdrop*

**__**

WHAT?!

LOK cast: Nothing!!

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Silveriss- PLAY TOMB RAIDER GAMES!!! That's all I have to say on that topic, thank you.

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Flamekaat- thank you- or should I say squiggle bottom?- but anyway, I'm glad the pair sticks. I think I may have started to read your fanfic, but I can't honestly remember. I'd be glad to read it if I could be sent a copy or whatever, as long as I can send comments through email.

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Jb- squiggle bottom.

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Kain-is-my-plushie- No, I didn't die, just went through a lazy spell. *runs away as angry readers try to pound head in with mallets* Hey, can I have a Kain plushie? *sniffle* Pwease?

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Syvia- noticed the "oh shit" coming on, did you? *chuckle* Just you wait and see….

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Seul Desir- Well, you know? It actually wasn't hard PUTTING the two together in the same situation. What was actually the most challenging was getting them to stay together and NOT KILL each other. And we're not even going to go into how much of a bitch it was to think of the entire meeting with Kain . . . Woo. Had to think of witty comments AND a way to keep them from killing each other.

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Sephiroth's Vampire Princess- Did I ever tell you that I absolutely adore Sephiroth? Very, very cute. In a different way from Raziel, of course, but DragonSeer is not going to go into the fangirl thing right now. I'm glad the story seems like it could actually be part of the series. That what I was trying to get when I wrote it. I mean, does it really seem that odd that Lara would be on Nosgoth dealing with Raziel and Kain? She does have a tendency to be at the heart of trouble. We'll see how that heart resolves. And yes, Raziel was supposed to have blonde hair in chapter 6. He was under an illusion spell, and I purposely made him look not like himself so if any of those EVIL FANGIRLS get into my story, they will not recognize him.

MWUAHAHAHAHA!!! And now on to the battle . . .


	15. Blood and Souls

Lara back flipped away from the snapping teeth and swinging claws of Hash'ak'gik. She twisted midair, ran toward some of the fallen ruins of the temple, trusting her feet to find sturdy support. She felt the old rock give way under her feet several times, but her momentum carried her past in a millisecond. She could hear the demon climbing quickly after her. When she hit the end, she jumped off, flipping around and released an entire clip into the towering demon of nothingness. She felt the ground meet her feet in a slight jarring impact and she rolled back with the fall to negate the shock to her body. She heard the demon growl lowly, his footsteps echoing through the ground as he strode toward her. Lara felt warmth seep into the nape of her neck and glanced back slowly to find a much smaller demon glaring down at her. The skin of this one was green and from foreclaw to elbow was a sharp blade. The thing had horrible breath and pulled back as if to snap her, when it was swatted away by what had to undoubtedly be a Reaver bolt. She risked a glance at Kain and Raziel. They both looked like they had their hands full. Moebius had not gotten possession of his staff again, but the energy shield that surrounded him kept him safe from harm and out of Raziel and Kain's claws. What looked like a multitude of demons had poured out of the forest and were engaged in combat with the two men. She noticed that there were many of the green type that had previously tried to assault her, but there was also one that seemed much spindlier and had electricity crackling down its body. The third was like the demon Raziel and Lara had fought in the Elder's chamber, only this one was capable of shooting bolts of golden energy and breathing fire. Both Raziel and Kain were doing their best to keep their eyes on the Time Streamer AND keep demons too preoccupied to go after Lara, who had her hands full with the Unspoken. She was brought back abruptly to her own predicament when she barely dodged out of the way of a slash. She felt the tips of the claws dig into her right side between the hip and the ribs, not far enough to actually hit any internal organs, but far enough to make her begin to bleed profusely. What felt like an ice-cold fire raced through her skin from the wound, threatening to send her into oblivion. She bit her tongue, welcoming the warmth of the pain and the blood and pushed back at the looming darkness.

'Enough is enough,' she thought to herself. She let the empty clip fall out of the Desert Eagle she was wielding and slid in the bullets she had gotten from the fortress. The first bullet left with a muffled explosion fiercer than any normal bullet. Everything around her seemed to slow and quiet as the bullet almost seemed to move in slow motion. Then it smashed into the nothingness flesh of Hash'ak'gik. She watched as the flesh literally _rippled_ where the bullet struck and a great wound embedded itself in his body. Without hesitating, she pulled the trigger again and held, feeling the world go dead silent as the bullets left the gun, one by one. She vaguely noticed all the demons had backed off and were either running away at seeing their most powerful in pain, staring in a sort of stupor, or beginning to move menacingly toward her. After the last bullet that she had fired hit the Unspoken, however, things went downhill for the demons. The demon master gave a terrifying roar of pain and a gash in what appeared to be existence itself broke open, swallowed the demon, and slammed shut in a fantastic explosion of power. Before anyone could do a thing, Lara turned and fired the last bullet in the clip at Moebius.

Raziel had been too preoccupied with demons to see Lara's antics, but had felt the huge discharge of power, and had felt instinctively that Hash'ak'gik was gone. At least for now. The demons began panicking and running off, and Raziel heard Lara fire one last time. The curious weapon's ammunition of hers smashed into the infernal shield Moebius was using and caused it to ripple, then shatter. Raziel leapt to the opportunity, backhanding the old man off his clump of ruined stones he had been using to stand on. Kain was almost instantly on his way over, a wave of slaughtered demon corpses where he had been. Moebius looked up at Raziel defiantly as Raziel felt the Reaver begin to tingle and awaken.

"What are you going to do, Raziel?" Moebius demanded, very satisfied with himself. "You cannot kill me. That would create a paradox so large I don't think even _you_ in your impertinence would attempt."

Kain had arrived and stood behind the Time Streamer. Lara cautiously made her way over to them, stepping over demon bodies, a hand to her wounded side. Both Kain and Raziel showed wounds from the battle, but their supernatural states were speeding their healing quickly. In a few moments they wouldn't show a sign of the battle.

Raziel felt the Reaver, or, more accurately, the other part of his soul creep into his mind, possessing his body. His eyes flashed and began to glow brighter as he leaned forward and the Reaver whispered through Raziel in a feral tone, "Do you know what it's like to be trapped in a sword for thousands of years?"

Moebius' eyes widened as he felt the exquisite pain of a blade being rammed through his body. The last thing he saw through his body's eyes was a tip of a blood red sword coming out of his own body. Kain stood behind the now dead Time Streamer and watched in satisfaction as the soul was pulled out of the body and absorbed into the sword. He quickly strode to the temple's heart, slammed the blade into the rock with everything his vampiric strength allowed him, and then headed back out to the two. He turned to Lara and asked politely, "May I borrow the weapon you used on the Sarafan, please?"

Lara carefully pulled the rocket launcher off her shoulders, careful of her wounded side, and handed it to Kain. Raziel's eyes narrowed in concern when he saw the blood slowly creeping out of her shirt. She shrugged him off with a silent gesture of not to worry about it.

Kain had walked to the temple, sighted it through the scope on the rocket launcher, and began shooting rockets into the temple, breaking the old stone walls and ceilings. He continued until every rocket had been used up and the temple had collapsed in on itself.

"Let us see how he gets out of that."

He headed back and handed the rocket launcher to Lara. She reached out for it, but felt a wave of nausea and ice-cold fire race across her body. _NO!_ She would not succumb to it. The fire seared through her blood, pounding in her temples, and the darkness rushed forward to engulf her. Kain caught her as she toppled.

A few moments later, he sat back from applying the bandage to her wound. He looked to Raziel who stood watching, acting like a protective guardian angel and fidgeting ever so slightly in worry.

"She'll be all right," Kain sighed. "I am very impressed, though. A lesser woman wouldn't have been able to survive even a touch from his claws, let alone being wounded badly. And to add that she managed to stay standing that long . . ." He shook his head. "She'll heal, but she'll always have a scar to remind her."

"So she'll be fine?" Raziel asked tersely.

"Yes, Raziel, she will be, and she'll probably be awake later today, knowing how stubborn that woman is."

He stood and walked to the Pillars to inspect the damage done or undone while Raziel sat next to Lara and watched her like a stone sentinel.


	16. An Intermission! 2

Okay, last little annoying intermission thingie. Of course, I'd like to thank my muse **Zargreus** for the "Do you know what it's like . . ." quote. Love you, my poor little under-appreciated muse!!

Onto the reviews. Same process as before; name bold if you reviewed, and you get my comments in it.

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ElemantalAngel- poor, poor Legolas and Raziel . . .

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Kain-is-my-plushie- THANK YOU!! *huggles plushie* Unobservant men . . .

To **Sephiroth's Vampire Princess**- Yeah, that really is a cool image. I should have used it a lot earlier . . . Oh well.

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Bloodthirsty- thank you, thank you, and YOU FEEL SORRY FOR MOEBIUS?! For the Heavens' and the Hells' sake, _why?!_ I guess he probably is being manipulated, even if he doesn't know it, but hey, a girl's got to have someone to blame.

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SpitefulHope- thank you, and I won't leave you hanging much longer.

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Lunatic Pandora- thank you, and …… how about no. Raziel and Kain on Earth? Uh-uh. *shakes head vehemently* (Bare in mind, that doesn't mean it might not happen . . .)

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Zargreus- Oooh, poor cutie. *aside* Quick, I've got him distracted! Get the LoK cast out of here, girls!

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Seul Desire and **VladimirsAngel**- thank you, thank you. Yes, VA, it would be great to see as a PS2 game (I wish). And I read your story of the Amulet, SD, and I really, really like it. It's very well written and entertaining.

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Fanatical-Chick- glad you liked it. The crossover was a bit hard to handle, but it was fun. I actually though up the idea a while back and spent about a week looking to see if anyone else had done it. You'd think it'd be obvious, right? I found ONE fic on it, and it was short, and . . . erm, not particularly to my liking. So here this one is. I'm glad you like the cards section. It was supposed to be funny. =)

All right, guys, you've hung in with me long enough. Here you go . . .


	17. Epilogue: A Favor Repaid Tenfold

Later that day, Lara stood at the Pillars saying good-bye to Kain. He had promised that with Moebius out of the way, no more vampires or demons would be coming through the portal to terrorize Earth. It wasn't quite ready for that full of a connection yet. Ariel floated solemnly nearby.

"All that is well and done, but how do we close the portal?"

"You cannot," the ghost intoned quietly. Lara and Kain looked up at her. "The two main Guardians have met, the Wielder of the Reaver is bound to both, and the connection between this world and yours is solidified. There is no way to separate them, but at least Moebius can no longer use it to his advantage. I'm sure Kain will make sure nothing comes through the portal."

Kain nodded acquiescence, said good-bye a final time, and teleported away. Ariel vanished back to wherever she stayed when she wasn't materialized. It was almost time to go. Lara looked around, knowing she had one other person to say good-bye to. She found herself almost afraid to speak with Raziel. She wasn't sure if it was because she didn't want to deal with the emotional good-byes, or because she didn't want to think it would be the last time she would speak to him. She gritted her teeth, spotted him standing on the hill not far from the Pillars, and headed over to him. They stood quietly for a long while.

"It was good to meet you," Raziel finally stated in a carefully neutral tone.

"The feeling is mutual."

Another painfully long silence fell between the two. Neither looked at the other, knowing it was time to let go.

"Raziel . . ." Lara began hesitantly. "Thank you. For everything. … _Especially_ for that night in the tomb."

Her commented evicted a short laugh from him. "Oh, Lara, is was a pleasure for me, as well."

They both turned to look at the portal.

"Well, I guess this is good-bye."

"I guess it is." Raziel took her hand gently, pulled her into his embrace, and kissed her one last time, pressing into her as if they'd melt into one another. Lara couldn't bring herself to break the lock.

'It's not good to hang on like this. A clean break heals faster,' she told herself, but another part whispered back, 'Of course, but just one more moment, please, I won't get to feel this ever again . . .'

When he released her, she walked swiftly down the hill, her back straight and head high. She rubbed her eyes slightly. She was not crying. Her allergies were just getting to her, that's all. Must be those damn light glowy bugs. She turned once before stepping in and saw Raziel wave her a mournful good-bye. She waved back and stepped in. Raziel sighed. She was gone.

Lara stepped out of the portal and was blasted by the familiar England air. Jials was suddenly running out to her shouting, "You are alive!"

"Of course, Jials, of course." She smiled at him and Jials noticed a strange . . . glow around her, a happiness tinged with sorrow that hadn't been there before. "The portal has to stay open, but nothing will be coming through it anymore."

"Wonderful! You must tell me everything that happened! But first, I want you to get a check up with the medic. You know, to make sure you won't spread anything to the normal mortal society."

She nodded vaguely, her mind already drifting back to the planet she had just left. He led her into the building and down a few interconnecting halls. He finally stopped at the medical bay. The medic on duty calmly told Lara to sit down and began running a few tests. The whole process took about half an hour, and to Jials' surprise, she didn't complain once. She had a kind of far away look in her eyes. Jials would almost have said she looked like she was deeply in a crush, perhaps even in love, but he shook his head and shoved the thought away as preposterous. Lara? In love?

His thoughts were interrupted by a soft whirring and a click as the medbay's doors opened and the medic came back in. Lara blinked a few times and focused on the medic, knowing what he said would mean her getting out of here and going home or not. He walked somewhat slowly toward her, looking at his clipboard, with a kind of bizarre expression on his face.

"Well, Miss Croft, I have some good news for you. Aside from the wound on your side, you're at top level as always. You'll have a scar there, but nothing too harsh. You're in perfectly good shape. In fact, better than ever. There's only one different thing about you."

"And that is?" Lara inquired out of polite curiosity. She wasn't too worried. Long ago when she had been about to go on one of her earlier escapades, she was diagnosed with minor lung scarring. Nothing too compromising, but aggravating none-the-less. Strangely enough, when she had come back, they were gone completely.

The medic looked up at her, then back at the clipboard and gulped. "You're pregnant."

The End


End file.
